Tourism is operated by Brazilian and Argentine companies and includes boat rides. The indigenous Mbya people perform a tribal dance at dusk and offer visitors handicrafts.
Tourism is operated by Brazilian and Argentine companies and includes boat rides. The indigenous Mbya people perform a tribal dance at dusk and offer visitors handicrafts.
==Ecology==
It has an ecological value as representing the native ecosystem, a unique place, where they are housed research work, the wise Swiss [[Moisés Santiago Bertoni|Moises Santiago Bertoni]], who lived in Paraguay, the Paraguayan rich flora, this museum was restored recently. The aim is to protect one of the last wild areas of Alto Paraná, and also the conservation of natural resources, especially forests.
==Weather==
==Weather==
The Scientific Monument Moises Bertoni is located in the District of Presidente Franco, Department of Alto Paraná, Paraguay riverside Paraná, approximately 26 km of the city of Presidente Franco. It was recognized on April 13, 1955 and has an area of 199 hectares.
The monument was the home of Swiss Moses Santiago Bertoni[1] (born 1857 Lottigna, Ticino, Switzerland, died 1929 Foz de Iguazu, Paraguay), who eventually settled in this area while still young, providing invaluable services to the people and Paraguayan Government. Bertoni became Paraguayan Minister of Agriculture.
House of Moises Bertoni
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Moises Bertoni was an idealist and passionate botanist who established his family in the jungles of Paraguay in 1894 to implement their ideals anarchists from Europe. Bertoni investigated the culture of the Guaraní throughout his lifetime.
Bertoni’s house was also his laboratory, library and site for printing his scientific papers, most of which were never publicly published in the scientific community. The forms issued in Bertoni’s house included the logo ‘Ex silvis’ (meaning from the jungle). The timing of rain and predictions were used by Paraguayan, Brazilian and Argentine farmers for decades after his death. Bertoni was a meticulous observer of nature and the Guaraní, who lived with him in his colony, classifying and studying thousands of plants. Through this, Bertoni was able to learn various uses of medicinal herbs.
The ten halls of the museum contain personal objects, manuscripts, books and letters. The ensemble is considered an important historical reference in the sciences to which Bertoni and his sons devoted decades of study.
The monument is surrounded by 199 hectares, legally protected since 1955. Inhabiting the park are the indigenous Mbya people as well as a group of park rangers.
The cemetery in which the Bertoni descendants are buried, is situated a few meters from the house. Several descendants were buried there until it was banned.
In 2024, the Paraguayan government arrested 26 individuals under suspicion of illegal deforestation after monitoring activities in the reserve.[2][3]
Bertoni contributed to the studies of botany, zoology, meteorology, anthropology and other sciences in the reserve. The park hosts a small section of the Atlantic forest, Paraná River, with species such as Palm (Euterpe edulis), Kuri’u (araucaria angustifolia), Fern tree, Jacuí-APETI (bored jacutinga), and The Woodpecker (Dryocopus galeatus), among other endangered plant species. It is estimated that about 60% of plant species were introduced by Moises Bertoni. Many of these introduced plant species only exist within the reserve annd are alien species within the Paraná region.
The area is surrounded by natural boundaries, in the north by the river Monday, in the east by the Paraná River, the south by stream Itá Coty, and west along the route connecting Presidente Franco Los Cedrales.
The Puerto Bertoni, as it is called by Paraguayans, is a tourist site of unique beauty, due to its location on the banks of the Paraná River.
Tourism is operated by Brazilian and Argentine companies and includes boat rides. The indigenous Mbya people perform a tribal dance at dusk and offer visitors handicrafts.
The average annual temperature is 21 °C, the highest reaches 38 °C and the minimum 0 °C. The highest annual amount of the country in rainfall occurs in the region of Alto Paraná. There are permanent dew and fog in winter.
The property that Moises Bertoni had acquired from Paraguayan government was within the territory of Mbya. The remaining 199 hectares of the former property and that today make up the Monument Scientific Moses Bertoni are still three villages populated by indigenous,[4] who make up approximately 10 to 12 acres (49,000 m2) in two plots inhabited by 200 Indians near one another.
