Argentina

D

Natural Resources

The traditional wealth of Argentina lies in the vast Pampas, which are used for extensive grazing and grain production. However, Argentine timber and mineral resources, especially offshore deposits of petroleum and natural gas, have assumed increasing importance.

E

Plants and Animals

The indigenous vegetation of Argentina varies greatly with the different climates and geographic regions of the country. The warm and moist northeastern area supports tropical plants, including such trees as the palm, rosewood, lignum vitae, jacaranda, and red quebracho. Grasses are the principal variety of indigenous vegetation in the Pampas. Trees, excluding such imported drought-resistant varieties as the eucalyptus, sycamore, and acacia, are practically nonexistent in this region and in most of Patagonia. The chief types of vegetation in Patagonia are herbs, shrubs, grasses, and brambles. In the Andean foothills of Patagonia and parts of Tierra del Fuego, however, conifers—notably fir, cypress, pine, and cedar—flourish. Cacti and other thorny plants predominate in the arid Andean regions of northwestern Argentina.

Argentina’s animal life is most diverse and abundant in the northern part of the country. Mammals here include monkeys, jaguars, pumas, ocelots, anteaters, tapirs, peccaries, and raccoons. Indigenous birds include the flamingo and various hummingbirds and parrots. The Pampas have armadillos, foxes, martens, wildcats, hare, deer, American ostriches (rheas), hawks, falcons, herons, plovers, and partridges; some of these animals are also found in Patagonia. The cold Andean regions are the habitat of llamas, guanacos, vicuñas, alpacas, and condors. Fish abound in coastal waters, lakes, and streams.

F

Environmental Concerns

About two-fifths of Argentina’s population lives in metropolitan Buenos Aires alone, where heavy traffic leads to significant air pollution. In rural areas, access to safe water and sanitation is limited. Rivers are becoming polluted due to an increase in pesticide and fertilizer use.

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Argentina has a relatively complex policy on land protection. There are 190 protected sites, covering a total of 4.4 percent of the country, with a mixture of federal, provincial, and municipal administration. Universities and private individuals also administer a few reserves. Only 1.7 percent (1997) of the land receives significant protection, and only about half of the recognized ecotypes in Argentina are represented in the protected land system. Major ecological threats are hunting and logging in the north, excessive tourism in the south, overgrazing in virtually all areas, and salinization (contamination with salt) of grazing and croplands as a consequence of damming and irrigation projects.

III

People

About 97 percent of Argentina’s population is of European origin. Unlike most Latin American countries, Argentina has relatively few mestizos (people of mixed European and Native American ancestry). However, the number of mestizos has increased in recent decades, primarily through emigration, mostly from Paraguay and Bolivia. Argentina also has a small number of indigenous peoples and its 1994 constitutional reforms guaranteed them certain rights, including the right to bilingual and intercultural education.

Argentina’s government has long encouraged European immigration, and for decades the country’s stable government, good communications, and economic opportunities attracted new residents. From 1850 to 1940, more than 6 million Europeans settled in the country. Spanish and Italian immigrants predominated, with significant numbers of French, British, German, Russian, Polish, and Syrian immigrants. Since the 1950s more than 50,000 Asians, primarily South Korean, have migrated to Argentina. However, since the 2002 economic collapse, many thousands of Argentines have left the country, migrating back to Italy, Spain, Germany, and other countries outside the region.

In 2007, Argentina had a population of 40,301,927, giving the country an overall population density of 15 persons per sq km (38 per sq mi). More than one-third of the population lives in or around Buenos Aires; 91 percent of the people live in urban areas.

Argentina’s people enjoy levels of per capita income, urbanization, literacy, and social welfare that rank among the highest in Latin America. The country’s entrepreneurial class, large middle class, and comparatively well-organized working class, together with a small indigenous population and the absence of a significant rural peasantry, distinguish Argentina from most other Latin American societies. Nevertheless, in few countries has the population been so clearly divided as in Argentina between the residents of the largest city and those living in the rural areas and smaller cities. Buenos Aires resembles a European capital with its wide boulevards and cafes, and its residents, who identify themselves as porteños or “people of the port,” are oriented more toward Europe and the United States in outlook than toward the rest of Argentina or South America.

With the growth of manufacturing, large numbers of rural laborers moved to Buenos Aires in search of a better life. These laborers have crowded into mushrooming slums on the edges of the capital, living in neighborhoods known as “villas miserias.” In many cases they have found only part-time employment.

A

Principal Cities

Buenos Aires is Argentina’s capital and largest city. In 2005 the population of the City of Buenos Aires was 3,018,102; in 2003 the urbanized area surrounding and including the city held an estimated 13 million people. Other important cities include Córdoba (population, 2001, 1,368,109); San Justo (1,253,921), a suburb of Buenos Aires; the river port of Rosario (908,163); La Plata (520,647), capital of Buenos Aires Province and part of the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area; Mar del Plata (519,707), a resort city on the Atlantic coast; San Miguel de Tucumán (527,150), a diversified manufacturing center; Salta (462,051), famous for its colonial architecture; and Mendoza (110,993), hub of an important agricultural and wine-growing region.

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