In just one week, members of the San Cayetano Park Biological Station managed to collect, thanks to the solidarity of Corrientes, the $ 50,000 they required to buy a camera that was stolen and has the sole utility of being used for the study and monitoring of native fauna .
The device was stolen last Sunday from the San Cayetano Provincial Park and was used to investigate the wildlife of the place.
It is an expensive camera, which records images by directing the temperature and movement of the animals.
El Litoral spoke with Adriana Vallejos, a provincial park ranger who works in the reserve.
He affirmed that the team of researchers, biologists, veterinarians, park rangers and guides of the Biological Station are happy for the achievement.
He affirmed that they saw with surprise how the collection was growing in an accelerated way with the passing of the days, until yesterday, only a week later, they reached the goal.
The collection was made through an application called “Cafecito”, where interested parties were invited to donate starting at $ 100 for the cause.
Cafecito is a crowdfunding platform (collective financing) that appeals to the accompaniment of third parties for the realization of projects or the realization of solidarity causes, such as this case.
Vallejos reported that the “camera traps” were located in strategic places in the San Cayetano park, which is in the process of recovering and rescuing its flora and fauna, after the two tragic fires that consumed at least 80% of its extension. of 76 hectares.
Vallejos stated that these special cameras are only for scientific use. Despite the spread of the theft in the area and the police report, they could not recover it.
The park ranger told this medium that, for the team, the loss was serious: “there are not many resources and it is difficult to do science in this context. They also took the memory and batteries, which are also expensive ”.
“We are constantly requesting subsidies from entities, science and research are not reaching large budgets or are not enough. From now on we are going to take this tool into account because we received a lot of support, even after we reached the goal, they wanted to continue donating, ”Vallejos said.
After the fires
The Biological Station is an institution that for decades has been in charge of developing research and supporting educational activities on the study of the ecology and conservation of animal and plant species in the region. It is a dependency of the Conicet that promotes the participation of scientists and teachers.
At the end of August last year, the provincial park suffered an intentional burning that lasted 48 hours and affected 50% of its surface.
Days later another fire broke out that devastated another part of the reserve and 85% of that territory was consumed and without the possibility of prompt recovery.
Currently, the team is working on monitoring the recovery of fauna and flora, which Vallejos characterized as slow.
“Only the grasslands have a recovery of an average of six months. But the mountain was devastated, the habitat is not the same and makes it difficult for the animals to return ”, he explained.
Added to this scenario is the persistent drought the province is experiencing, which makes the recovery of the soil even more adverse.
“We are trying to start restoration projects for the forest, which has no antecedents or studies in the region. We are in contact with researchers from Córdoba, who are in the same process.
(IRB)
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