Corrientes

Birding Corrientes

Corrientes is a province in northeast Argentina, in the Mesopotamia region. Its name means “currents” or “rapids” in Spanish. It is surrounded by (from the North, clockwise): Paraguay, the province of Misiones, Brazil, Uruguay, and the provinces of Entre Rios, Santa Fe and Chaco.

As part of the subtropical area of Mesopotamia, the province has heavy rains and high temperatures with little daily and seasonal variation specially in the North, and no dry season. The Southern part of the province presents some signs of the neighbouring more temperate weather of the Pampas.

Corrientes is surrounded by two rivers, the Uruguay River to the east, and the Paraná River to the northwest, that contour the shape of the province. The low shore of the Paraná produces frequent floodings. After the specially destructive one in 1982, a protective system has been started with the construction of barriers.

The province is for the most part a plain, with the highest points in the east. To the west, a series of descending platforms go down to the Paraná River. The Iberá Wetlands, an area of lagoons and swamps, is a vast depression from volcanic flow, covered later with fluvial and eolic sediments.

Corrientes, like much of the Argentine north, has long had relatively underdeveloped economy. Agriculture is still one of the main activities in the province, adding 15% to its output. It’s centred in citrus, tobacco, rice, tea, cotton and yerba mate, for which it’s well known internationally. The timber industry uses 1,400 km² of pine and eucalyptus forests.

On the Paraná River, near the city of Ituzaingó, the Yaciretá dam provides energy not only to the province, but to both Argentina and Paraguay.