Iberá Provincial Reserve
| Iberá Provincial Reserve | |
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| Reserva Provincial Iberá | |
Low aerial view of Iberá Provincial Reserve
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| Location | Corrientes Province, Argentina |
| Nearest city | Concepción |
| Coordinates | 28°36′0″S 57°48′1″W / 28.60000°S 57.80028°WCoordinates: 28°36′0″S 57°48′1″W / 28.60000°S 57.80028°W |
| Area | 1,300,000 ha (13,000 km2; 5,000 sq mi) |
| Established | April 15, 1983 |
| Designated | 2002 |
| Area | 24,500 ha (245 km2; 95 sq mi) |
The Iberá Provincial Reserve (Spanish: Reserva Provincial Iberá, from Guaraní ý berá: "bright water") is a provincial protected area in the north-west of Corrientes Province, north-eastern Argentina. Established on 15 April 1983, it contains a mix of swamps, bogs, stagnant lakes, lagoons, natural sloughs and courses of water. With an area of about 1,300,000 ha (13,000 km2; 5,000 sq mi), the reserve spans a significant 14% of the Corrientes province, and is the largest protected area in the country.
Part of the Iberá Wetlands, a greater system of marshes of 1,500,000–2,000,000 ha (15,000–20,000 km2; 5,800–7,700 sq mi), the second-largest wetland in the world after Pantanal in Brazil, and one of the most important fresh water reservoirs in the continent. In 2002 an area of 24,500 ha (245 km2; 95 sq mi) has been listed as a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar convention.
There is an ongoing project to promote the Iberá reserve to national park status.
Throughout the area several permanent lagoons of different size can be distinguished; the largest of them are the eponymous Iberá and Luna, on which banks the village of Colonia Carlos Pellegrini was founded. The lagoons Fernández, Galarza, Medina, Paraná and Trin also exceed 15 km2 (5.8 sq mi). This lagoon system is typically very shallow, although in times of floods it can reach over three meters deep. Few areas of dry land alternate with these water bodies, mostly low and sandy hills; the rest is covered by a large expanse of floodplains.
Spatial orientation becomes extremely difficult because the exact profile of the solid surface is constantly changing, and the visual continuity between the dry land and swamps is almost seamless due to the large number of semi-submerged vegetation. In addition, natural dams are formed by root entanglement of floating vegetation formations that are sometimes strong enough to walk on them.
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