- 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.”
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Timelines
2024
The Gran Chaco was hit by rising deforestation in 2024, damaging the dry forest ecosystem that spans approximately 65 million hectares (160 million acres) — an area more than one and a half times the size of California — across Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil. Conservation groups in Argentina, which has the biggest share of the Gran Chaco, are calling for stricter penalties to prevent additional habitat loss. In 2024, Argentina lost 149,649 hectares (369,791 acres) of its approximately 52.6 million hectares (130 million acres) of Gran Chaco forest — most of it from agriculture and fires, according to a Greenpeace report. The provinces with the most forest loss were Santiago del Estero, Chaco, Formosa and Salta. It was a slight increase from the previous year, which saw 134,700 hectares (332,851 acres) of forest loss. Out of all of last year’s forest loss, 29,763 hectares (7,3546 acres), or a fifth, were the result of fires, according to the report. Nearly all of them were caused by bonfires and poorly extinguished cigarette butts and preparation for cattle pasture, according to the Ministry of National Security. Formosa, Salta and Chaco were affected the most. In recent years, agriculture, livestock and forestry activities have contributed an estimated 39% to Argentina’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the country’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory. The legislation has had a largely positive impact, prohibiting clearing in almost 80% of forest areas, according to Greenpeace. But it has also been manipulated in some Gran Chaco provinces to allow for increased development, the group’s report said.
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.
