In 1991 the Cat Survival Trust purchased 10,000 acres of virgin forest in the province of Misiones, in north-east Argentina, at a place called Paraje el Piñalito.
Money to buy the land had to be raised by public subscription in a very short time or the land would have been sold to a logging company. The purchase was completed on the last possible day.
A preliminary survey had been carried out by an Argentinian biologist to verify that the land was worth saving, but it was only after the purchase had been made that its true worth began to be revealed. Plants were found there which appear to be new to science; many plants were known to the local people as having valuable medicinal properties; the only streams in the area which still have unpolluted water nearly all rise within the land; birds were found there which had never previously been recorded in Argentina and it was also home to about forty cats of five different species. No wonder that the message which came back to the Trust was “this land must be saved at all costs!”
Although most of the land was untouched virgin forest, a small area near to the main entrance had been logged about twenty years previously and then replanted with partly non-native trees, mainly Eucalyptus. A probable management plan for the area will include the gradual removal of these exotics and their replacement with native species, either by replanting or by natural succession. A study centre will be built nearby so that the reserve can be better evaluated and it is possible that other small scale developments will take place, providing employment for the local people in the village of El Piñalito.
In March 1997 agreement was reached with the Provincial government of Misiones for the adoption of the reserve by the government as a Provincial Park. This relieves the charity of all reponsibility for management and protection of the area although rights of access are retained and an area of 3 hectares has been designated a Private Park on which a study centre and residential building can be erected. This is a very satisfactory arrangement for all concerned and represents a successful conclusion of the first phase of the Trust's involvement in South America.
Other land in the area is available for purchase, and the Trust is trying to raise the large sum of money (almost £600,000) needed to buy it. When that land has been added to the reserve it is proposed to reintroduce jaguars, which lived in the area until about eighty years ago and of which the Iguazú National Park, about sixty miles further north, has too many.

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