ID: 1260

Somuncurá Plateau: Patagonia's buy an acre project

This plateau in Argentinian Patagonia is unique among World Land Trust’s Buy an Acre projects, with its persecuted predators and proliferation of small, highly endemic species found nowhere else on Earth. Their new partner, Fundación Hábitat y Desarrollo, plans to purchase 4,725 hectares on the Somuncurá Plateau. The funds will not only facilitate the creation of a reserve – the first ever protected area on the Plateau – but also support three years of its management by Fundación Hábitat y Desarrollo. Securing protection for Somuncurá – a predominately shrubland habitat intermixed with grassland, scrub, rocky outcrops and streams – is of urgent importance. Identified as a priority site by the Alliance for Zero Extinction, as well as a Key Biodiversity Area and Important Bird Area, this is a landscape with considerable conservation value. It’s also under considerable threat. The programme ultimately helps Fundación Hábitat y Desarrollo to enact conservation measures that will preserve the Plateau’s exceptional biodiversity. Alongside the terrestrial species, the proposed reserve harbours a number of endemic aquatic species that make their home in the Valcheta Stream. Though temperatures on the Plateau can plummet below freezing, the consistently warm waters of the Valcheta – heated by hot springs at the stream’s headwaters – have enabled the evolution of highly specialised species here. These include the El Rincon Stream Frog and the Naked Characin, two Critically Endangered species.

Planned actions

Protection of land/water

Management of land/water

Species management