A tripartite initiative has been launched to promote tourist attractions in the department of Caazapá, whose most important natural assets include a large part of the San Rafael forest reserve, which has been designated a national park. The departmental government, Caazapá capital and the National Secretary of Tourism participate in the project.
The San Rafael National Park was created by decree 13,680 of 1992, given the need to preserve the 78,000 hectares of the depredation to which the forests that comprise it were already being subjected. It is a continuous mountain part of which is in the department of Caazapá and part in Itapúa.
The natural attractions of this Atlantic forest reserve are integrated into one of the few untouched expanses of vegetation cover with abundant streams, rapids and falls that are a refuge for the most varied species of birds, mammals, fish and insects.
If the three institutions involved agree and work in coordination, the occupation of that reserve with hiking activities, adventure sports, camping, added to the scientific and research tasks carried out by some conservation NGOs, could discourage illegal extraction activities. of valuable wood that still remains in the reserve.
But surveillance agencies, detection of unauthorized logging and trade in the resulting wood must also do their part, without forgetting the increasingly common practice of planting marijuana in clearing areas. These criminal activities have to be nipped in the bud and for this a determined presence of the State and its competent punitive organisms is needed.
Local destinations are becoming more attractive every day if they are accompanied by appropriate infrastructure, among them, the adaptation of accommodations for the overnight stay of a new stream of tourists who travel the continent in motorhomes, motorcycles and various vehicles conditioned to serve as overnight inns. to travelers. It is a low cost tourism that generates a demand for cheap inns, camping beaches and fast food that allow them to enjoy the panorama before continuing their trip.
Caazapá can join the current with its new tourism development project.
