Chacras Laguna del Cisne Reserve

About

Name of organisation

Chacras Laguna del Cisne Reserve

Funding support

Private

Number of staff

6 Persons, Urbanist, General Foreman, Park Ranger and three members of the Environmental Team.

Number of visitors per year

We plan to open the Centre next year.

Overall aims of the centre

Environmental education and interpretation of the wetland and the lagoon, gateway to the ecosystem.

Description of the centre

In the area of Marindia, department of Canelones, Uruguay, we are a family enterprise that is dedicated to the transformation of an old 300 ha agricultural property, dedicated to forestry and livestock production, into a family community of small rural farms. The Reserva de Chacras development is located on the coast of the Laguna del Cisne, which ‘is the largest natural lentic (lake) system in the department of Canelones, and constitutes the southern limit of the coastal lagoon system that extends from Santa Catarina (Brazil) to the department of Canelones’ (Goyenola et al., 2011a; Panario and Gutiérrez, 2011). Its basin is part of the lower part of the Pando stream and its main natural tributaries are the Piedra del Toro and Cañada del Cisne streams, draining into the Tropa Vieja stream. Its watershed extends approximately 50 km2 north of Salinas and Marindia and is almost circumscribed by Route 11 to the east, Route 8 to the north, Route 87 to the west and the Interbank Route to the south.

Part of the basin is made up of the Estero Wetland, located to the east of the Laguna del Cisne, which is responsible for the ecosystem services of regulating the water quality of the lagoon. Since 1971 the system has been used in the Department of Canelones by OSE (State Health Works) as a source of drinking water, supplying the most important tourist sector of the Department, reaching almost 10,000 inhabitants of Costa de Oro (Goyenola, G., Fleitas, V., Urtado, L., Fosalba, C., Acevedo, S., Cabrera. S. 2024). The lagoon is surrounded by private rural properties, with no public access to it. These productive properties support forestry, livestock, dairy farming, wine production, horticulture and residential use, among others. Some of these activities involve the extensive use of agrochemicals (such as herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, etc.), even in the area closest to the lagoon, establishing a non-negligible environmental and health risk.

It is within this framework that the project, in accordance with the regulations, has created a buffer zone of 40 hectares of natural reserve against the shore of the lagoon and has earmarked a farm for the construction of common services, which we hope will become a gateway to the lagoon and the wetlands for the community. In recent months we have been working hard with a group of environmental consultants on the elaboration of a baseline, the design of a Management and Restoration plan, the hiring of a Park Ranger and the possibility of developing a programme of education and dissemination of the importance of the basin, for which we take as a reference the manual of good practices for wetland education centres, developed by WLI.

At the same time, we have been working with the local government to create a Wetland and Lagoon Education Centre, which will provide local public schools, private educational centres and the organised community with a space where they can carry out CEPA activities and for the first time have a gateway to this ecosystem, in order to ensure, through the commitment of the community, the maintenance of the ecosystem quality of the Lagoon, protect its biodiversity, as well as aiming at strategies and measures to mitigate and try to reverse the trend towards environmental deterioration and collaborate in the restoration of the ecosystem, the maintenance of the ecosystem quality of the lagoon, protect its biodiversity, as well as aim at strategies and measures to mitigate and try to reverse the trend towards environmental deterioration and to collaborate in the ecosystem restoration and the irreplaceable services it provides to society and the environment, both in the present and for future generations.