Argentina Wants to Create a National Park in Malvinas Islands

On Sunday, the Government of Argentina said it will send to Parliament a bill for the creation of a national park in the Malvinas Islands, an archipelago that is currently under British rule but whose sovereignty is claimed by the Argentine people.

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The Environmental Ministry will work with the National Parks Administration and the Malvinas Museum "to advance a bill for the creation of the first national park on the islands."

"Why not a bill? Let the National Congress decide to choose a national park," Environmental Minister Juan Cabandie said.

On Saturday night, during an event at the Malvinas Museum in Buenos Aires, the Minister presented an emblem in honor of the Valvinas islands that shows a Malvinas fox ("guara") on a mountain and steppe landscape.

"One day we will be able to contemplate, care for and preserve this ecosystem. We hope to have park rangers there to tell all visitors what each of the ecosystem values of our islands are," said Cabandie.

The environmental minister highlighted the richness of the Malvinas ecosystem, an archipelago in the southern Atlantic that was at the center of the 1982 war between Argentina and the United Kingdom.

"Malvinas is the claim for our historical sovereignty. But the islands are also an ecosystem, albatrosses, marine fauna, wetlands, and peat bogs. In the Southern Patagonia region, these peat bogs are one of the most important carbon capturers that the planet has."