MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Paraguay has only 83 park rangers; it needs 5,000

Women park rangers have more job insecurity and deserve equal rights

Paraguayan authorities have admitted they only had 83 properly trained park rangers to guard some 2.4 million protected hectares, way below international standards of one for every 500 hectares.

The National System of Protected Wildlife Areas (Sinasip) said that taking into account the recommendations of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) of at least one park ranger for every 500 hectares, Paraguay should have at least 5,000 such officials.

Park rangers are part of the most vulnerable line of the fight against illicit actions in national parks, such as marijuana plantations and invasions by the self-styled “landless” people.

Hence, wild areas need more park rangers, for which a budgetary reengineering has been performed, although other adjustments are still required. Perhaps the solution lies with hiring more female park rangers.

The International Federation of Park Rangers declared July 31, 1992, as World Park Rangers' Day to honor their work and their commitment to maintaining and protecting the world's natural and cultural treasures.

In that scenario, a working group convened to mark the occasion said that Latin America will advance in gender equality for women park rangers. After their first meeting last year in Chile, it was agreed that all park rangers should have access to the same rights, benefits, and equal opportunities. The gathering featured women park rangers from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

Only 37.9% of the continent's women park rangers have permanent contracts, which means high job insecurity and instability for the rest, it was reported.

The working group led by Chile's CONAF will keep meeting every year to organize work teams in all countries to achieve progress in the labor world of park rangers in gender equality.