- hot-spots
- deforestation
- Argentina
- Deforestation in Argentina’s Gran Chaco
Problems
The Gran Chaco is not the most well-known forest in South America. It is second in size and biodiversity to the neighboring Amazon rainforest. Unlike the moist Amazon, the Gran Chaco is located in a semi-arid climate; its vegetation is less colorful. The second largest forest in South America after the Amazon rainforest is the Gran Chaco, home to 9 million people and thousands of species, it is under intense pressure from deforestation. Stretching across Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil, it has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world.
Causes of Deforestation in Gran Chaco
Much of the cleared land has been converted to farmland for growing soybeans and raising livestock. Argentina is the third-largest soybean producer in the world. Research shows that soybean production was a direct driver of deforestation in the forest. As soybean producers felt more pressure to keep up with global demand, they needed to find untapped land and began clearing forests and arid regions. According to official data, a million tonnes of wood are extracted each year in Chaco – a figure that likely does not give the full picture, given the large amount of wood that is taken out illegally; the true scale may reach levels as high as two to three million tonnes per year. Recent years have seen repeated waves of wildfires blaze across the Gran Chaco. For zootechnical engineer Mauricio Tinari, from the Fundación Gran Chaco, species of forestry interest – carob trees and quebrachos, primarily – should be harvested in an orderly manner and by applying the appropriate technical criteria. “If harvesting continues indiscriminately, these trees would be all gone in about 15-20 years.”
Gallery
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Timelines
2022
Since 2000, Gran Chaco has one of the highest deforestation rates in the world, having lost over a quarter of its forest area.
2020
Since 2010, according to the deforestation monitoring platform run by the Agroforestry Network Chaco Argentina (Redaf) the province lost over 376,000 hectares of native forest, mostly in Green but also in Yellow and Red areas, where logging is not permitted.
2013
Since1985, observations by Landsat satellites indicate that roughly 20 percent—142,000 square kilometers (55,000 square miles)—of the forest was converted into farmland or grazing land.
2007
Argentina enacted a national “forest law” mandating that local governments regulate the expansion of large-scale farming and establish practices to protect native forests. However, research shows that local governments were unable to enforce the law in certain protected zones, some of which actually experienced an increase in deforestation after the law was passed.
in the late 1800s
Driven by the extraction of the hardwood Schinopsis balansae, or red quebracho trees – a name meaning “axe-breaker” – deforestation began apace with the operations of the British logging company La Forestal.