(By Juan Manuel Laprovitta) The Argentine Army and the Municipality of the Corrientes city of Paso de los Libres defined the creation of a natural reserve, located in a green lung of that city that contains the habitat of a palm tree unique in the world.
The urban natural reserve “El cocal” was born on Tuesday, November 7, through the signing of an agreement that unites the Ministry of Defense, the Army and the Municipality of Paso de los Libres, in the creation of that space now destined for its preservation , within the 3rd Artillery Group regiment.
It is an open space in the city, but over time it became surrounded by urban infrastructure and is part of the natural landscape of this town located 370 kilometers southeast of the capital of Corrientes, on the Argentine bank of the river. Uruguay.
The origin of this reserve dates back to the concern of the botanical specialist belonging to the Habitat and Development Foundation, Gustavo Aparicio, who in 2013 and 2014 decided to pursue as a social cause the need to preserve the heart of this reserve: the palm tree. of Bonpland, known scientifically as Butia noblickii.
It is a species discovered just over 10 years ago and its discovery occurred in response to a very old confusion, since the Institute of Botany of the Northeast (Ibone) had it classified as a close relative, the Butia poñí, which grows in the province of Misiones.
In 2012, the Brazilian botanists Deble and Marchiori decided to unravel with scientific foundations a hypothesis posed by the American botanist and palm specialist Larry Roland Noblick, who upon visiting the Ibone denied that the sample offered in his herbarium was of the missionary species.
From this study arose the publication published in the scientific journal Balduinia, from Brazil, which gave rise to this new species.
“It is a unique species, its palm groves are located only on sandy hills in a strip of around 100 kilometers that covers the Corrientes towns of Paso de los Libres, Bonpland and Yapeyú,” Aparicio told Télam.
What are the risks that this palm tree runs? Firstly, the human hand, since the city installed a garbage dump in a sector of this property that will be preserved and that includes about 250 hectares of the regiment, where the Army carries out shooting practices.
But in other areas of this butia, clearings have also been generated for the use of the sandy areas for productive purposes since pine, cassava and watermelon, among other crops, grow on that soil.
Each adult specimen measures an average of between four and five meters in height and its fruits are edible, therefore, it attracts not only a lot of fauna but also its collection for consumption and the production of sweets and a liquor.
In fact, it is the fruit that gave its name to this sector of the city, “El cocal”, since it is known as “coquito de yatay”.
“We are talking about palm groves that, like the araucaria forests, can be hundreds of years old, that is, Corrientes has plant witnesses of a huge portion of its history that gives foundation to a reserve that can be very useful for their future,” Aparicio reflected in dialogue with Télam.
And he stressed: “It is valuable to highlight that this is an exclusively Corrientes species, which is not found anywhere else in the world and, especially, that preserving the destiny and use of its natural habitat offers at the same time an enormous opportunity for tourism, precisely in an area of passage to Brazil where travelers deserve to stay to get to know it with various activities.
Around this new reserve, attempts to create a protected space arose in 2013 and led to two ordinances issued unanimously by the Deliberative Council of Paso de los Libres.
One, from 2014, which declares the Bonpland palm tree a natural monument of the commune, and another, from 2018, which gives institutional status to the interest in creating the reserve in conjunction with the Army and which was possible this year with the signing of the agreement between Mayor Martín Ascúa and the Minister of Defense of the Nation, Jorge Taiana.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
