Programme

The Gran Chaco is the largest dry forest in South America and the continent’s most extensive forest region after the Amazon rainforest. 60% of the Gran Chaco is situated in Argentina but it covers areas in Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil too. It is a dry forest with scattered wetlands and palm groves that are created by seasonal flooding of the Bermejo River. The Gran Chaco is highly biodiverse and home to some 4,270 different species, many of which are only to be found here.

Deforestation rates are high in the Gran Chaco: since 1985 an estimated 20% of its forest cover has been cleared for pasture and cropland. The area is also severely degraded due to years of overgrazing and selective hardwood extraction. The remaining forests and grasslands have been threatened for decades by increasing global prices of agro-commodities and the encroachment of industrial agriculture reportedly forces many (indigenous) residents to leave their homes.

To reach its ambitious goal this program consists of three strategies:

• Rewilding and park management: reestablish sustainable populations of species threatened with extinction, while establishing a culture of active management and ecological restoration that promotes wildlife watching as the base for local development. This will provide ecological and scientific benefits while improving the natural attractions for a nature-based economy.

• Local development: encourage local communities to revalue their traditional knowledge and to develop an alternative, restorative local economy by offering natural products and services, based on traditional customs, resources and values. By sharing and promoting the story of El Impenetrable and by offering ecotourism services the economic options of the communities will be improved, diversified and strengthened.

• A connected landscape: build the institutional and strategic tools to establish a connected ecological and economic landscape that will range from the Atlantic Forest to the Andean cloud forest, passing through the main ecosystems of the Gran Chaco.