Aconquija National Park and National Reserve Project (Argentina)

In December 2019, the Wyss Foundation provided a $7,100,000 grant to Fundación Flora y Fauna Argentina (now Rewilding Argentina) to purchase Estancia Las Animas in Argentina. This was the final property to be acquired within the boundary of the Acqonquija National Park and National Reserve which lies just inside Tucumán Province’s border with neighboring Catamarca Province. Immediately upon its acquisition, the property was transferred for inclusion in the new park. This grant was the final disbursement of a $22 million commitment to Rewilding Argentina to help it acquire private lands to formally establish the park. 

Aconquija National Park was authorized by the Argentine Congress on in July 2018; however, the park could not be formally established until lands within the park’s 178,000 acre boundary were purchased from willing sellers and donated to Argentina’s National Parks Administration for inclusion in the park. This final purchase completed the first phase of the project.

Aconquija National Park protects a critically important mountain chain in north central Argentina. Tucumán Province identified this area as vital for conservation because the mountains’ glaciers provide clean, clear water to support the province’s world-famous lemon and blueberry industries. The park also includes remnants of the most southerly known Inca settlement.

Because of the success of this first phase of the project, in November 2022 the legislation to expand the park by 45,000 acres passed into law. Now that the park has been formally expanded, the Wyss Foundation is working with Rewilding Argentina to purchase lands within the expansion area and transfer them to the Argentina National Parks Administration so that they will become part of the National Park.