PARAGUAY

Bordered by Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil, landlocked Paraguay is located almost at the very centre of South America at the convergence of four of the continent’s bioregions.

Running from north to south, the River Paraguay roughly divides the country into two distinct geographic regions—the western arid lowland Chaco or Occidental region comprising 61% of the country, and the eastern, humid upland Paraneña or Orient, where the vast majority of the country’s population lives.

The Paraguayan Chaco, Paraguay’s largest bioregion, comprises 23% of the vast Gran Chaco—South America’s second-largest forest—extending for 1,066,000 km² (411,585 square miles) across the lowlands of northern Argentina, western Paraguay, southern Bolivia and into Brazil. The Paraguayan Chaco is divided into two ecoregions—the Dry Chaco in the north-west dominated by scrubby xeromorphic forests adapted to very irregular rainfall, and the Humid Chaco, a mosaic of dry forests, palm savannahs and seasonally flooded wetlands.

Along the north-east border with Brazil, the Chaco transitions into the flooded grasslands and wetlands of the Pantanal, while in the east of the country, the Chaco gives way to two of the world’s biodiversity hotspots—the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado savannah.

Paraguay’s rich biodiversity includes 395 fish species, 88 amphibians, 135 reptiles, and 688 bird species, including Crowned Solitary Eagle (Endangered) and Bare-faced Curassow (Vulnerable). The 181 mammal species recorded include the threatened Chacoan Peccary (Endangered)—thought extinct until the first live individuals were sighted in 1970—as well as Lowland Tapir, Marsh Deer and Southern Tiger Cat (Vulnerable), and nine species of armadillos, including the rare Giant Armadillo (Vulnerable).

The Paraguayan Chaco has one of the highest deforestation rates in the entire Gran Chaco, with 50% of the forest predicted to be lost to cattle ranching and soy production by 2030. Wildfires are another major threat, destroying vast areas in the Chaco and the Pantanal in recent years, and poaching remains a significant threat to the country’s biodiversity. WLT has supported partner Guyra Paraguay since 2005 with forest protection in the Pantanal, Atlantic Forest and Dry Chaco.