Carved up and sold off: developers plan a ‘new Miami’ in Argentina’s wetlands
The Paraná delta has been called ‘Earth’s fourth lung’. But local people say they and the area’s diverse flora and fauna are being pushed aside in favour of private beaches, spas and helipads.
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Surrounded by his seven dogs, Pedro Andino sits on his dock in the Paraná delta and watches the river. Behind him, his red-stained house peeks through the wilderness, and a small fire fans away the mosquitoes.
The 80-year-old was born on this land but, for more than a decade, has been battling to stay. While islanders see the delta as the Earth’s fourth lung, real estate developers regard it as an opportunity – and Andino says local people and animals are being pushed out.
“The islands are being taken by force, and our people are being thrown away,” he says. “Little by little, they have pitted the islanders against each other.”
Developers from nearby Buenos Aires advertise the delta as the “Miami of the South”, filling it with weekend retreats, luxury homes, and gated communities. The land – one of the world’s largest river deltas, extending more than 17,500 sq km – has been carved up to create private beaches, spas and helipads.
Andino claims that, in the past 15 years, his father’s home has burned down, and most of his neighbours’ houses destroyed. He, too, says he has resisted multiple threats designed to make him leave.
Pedro Andino, who says the delta has completely changed. Photograph: Harriet Barber
“In 50 years, it has completely changed, even the shape of our rivers, without any consultation. Our delta, as it was, does not exist any more,” says Andino, raising his voice above the rumble of a nearby jetski. “Every year is a bit worse.”
The Paraná delta is a reservoir of wildlife; the islands are thick with twisting flora, white-necked herons, giant wood rails and pinnated bittern fly overhead, and water hyacinths tangle in the crisscrossed rivers. The wetlands also serve a vital environmental purpose: they regulate the climate, store water and act as a carbon sink.
However, scientists warn that overdevelopment of this land has had a cataclysmic impact.
