Located in Patagonia, in the southern tip of South America, Argentina’s Los Alerces National Park boasts large natural forests, which include the second longest living tree species on Earth – the Endangered alerce or Patagonian cypress.

The site’s oldest recorded tree is a 2,600-year-old, 60-metre-high alerce. The area contains some 7,000 ha of old-growth alerce stands, which amounts to over a third of all Alerce forests remaining in Argentina.

Los Alerces National Park has become the first natural World Heritage site inscribed within the Northern Patagonian forest region, widely recognised as a global conservation priority. IUCN has encouraged Argentina and neighbouring Chile to consider future extensions to the site in the much larger area which contains several renowned protected areas.

As part of its independent advisory role under the World Heritage Convention, IUCN carried out a field mission to Los Alerces National Park to evaluate Argentina’s proposal to inscribe the park on the World Heritage List.

Clear lakes, rivers and creeks display shifting hues of green, blue and turquoise according to the intensity of sunlight and the time of the year.

Los Alerces National Park is home to elusive mammal species such as the Endangered huemul, the largest native deer of the Andes, the puma, Patagonia’s top predator, and the “Monito del Monte”, a nocturnal “living fossil” which is linked to ancient and extinct marsupials.