- Approximately 2.78 million hectares (6.87 million acres) were added to Paraguay’s Chaco Biosphere Reserve in 2011, yet the area continues to be one of the country’s worst hit by forest loss.
- Regulations are only selectively enforced by the government, if not entirely ignored, critics say.
- Property owners often exceed how much native vegetation they can legally clear on their land to make room for cattle pasture and agriculture.
- As the forest shrinks, Indigenous Ayoreo-Totobiegosode living in that part of the reserve have struggled to maintain voluntary isolation; they rely on the forest for food, shelter and medicine, and don’t have immunity to many outside diseases.
More than a decade ago, officials in Paraguay expanded a biosphere reserve in the Gran Chaco, hoping to protect more of the world’s largest tropical dry forest and the Indigenous communities who live there. But a lack of enforcement has left the reserve vulnerable to deforestation caused by agribusiness and cattle ranching, observers say.
Approximately 2.78 million hectares (6.87 million acres) were added to Paraguay’s Chaco Biosphere Reserve in 2011, yet the area continues to be one of the country’s worst hit by forest loss, according to satellite imagery analyzed by Mongabay. Indigenous groups say regulations are selectively upheld, allowing landowners to clear the forest.
“In practice, the biosphere reserve hasn’t gone beyond being just a designation, a protection category, without actually advancing to a stage of regulation or stronger control over human activity,” said Miguel Ángel Alarcón, general coordinator of Iniciativa Amotocodie, a nonprofit that helps the Indigenous Ayoreo defend their forests in the Gran Chaco.
The biome has some of the highest deforestation rates in the world, with around 5.2 million hectares (12.8 million acres) lost between 2000 and 2020. As the forest shrinks, Indigenous Ayoreo-Totobiegosode have struggled to maintain customs dependent on their voluntary isolation. They rely on the forest for food, shelter and medicine, and don’t have immunity to many outside diseases.
“They live running from one place to another because they’re frightened of the loud noises of the machinery,” said Guei Basui Picanerai, secretary of the Guidai and Ducodegosode Ayoreo Association of Paraguay, which represents Ayoreo communities in the Chaco.
The 4.7-million-hectare (11.6-million-acre) biosphere reserve was established by decree in 2001 and included in UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme in 2005, aimed at improving relationships between people and their environments.
The UNESCO listing specifically mentions the Ayoreo and the reserve’s unique “pluriculturalism.”
In 2011, Paraguay expanded the reserve to approximately 7.5 million hectares (18.5 million acres) via administrative resolution by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MADES), at the time called the Secretariat of Environment.
The resolution cites Indigenous people living in voluntary isolation acting as guardians of the area’s natural resources. It also describes unique ecosystems and high biodiversity, including guanacos (Lama guanicoe), jaguars (Panthera onca), tapirs (Tapirus terrestris), giant armadillos (Priodontes maximus), and 421 species of Paraguay’s 684 known bird species.
In the original reserve and its extension, land purchases aren’t prohibited, but owners must maintain 50% of native vegetation on their properties.
The regulation is only selectively enforced by MADES, if not entirely ignored, according to many advocacy groups. They say property owners often surpass the forest clearing limit to make room for cattle pasture and agriculture.
“The satellite photos of western Paraguay paint a harrowing picture: just a few decades ago this was a vast area of Indigenous forest — now it’s a wasteland of destruction,” said Caroline Pearce, director of Survival International, an Indigenous advocacy group. “The uncontacted Ayoreo are trapped in a forest island that’s being destroyed by the day.”
Critics say MADES excludes the reserve extension from internal documents. The ministry didn’t reply to a request for comment or provide examples to disprove this claim.
In a strategic plan by the National System of Protected Areas for 2025-2030, the ministry acknowledges the reserve extension in some descriptions, but also appears to exclude it and other parts of the reserve in a total count of protected surface area in Paraguay.
Administrative resolutions like the one issued by MADES in 2011 are supposed to be recognized and enforced across all parts of the government, advocates in the reserve say. But because it’s not being upheld, some lawmakers have tried to add additional layers of protection in hopes that it will spark a change in enforcement.
In 2019, Congress considered a law to protect the entire 7.5 million hectares of reserve and “contribute to regulations that allow for the real protection” of the country’s heritage sites, according to a statement from lawmakers supporting the bill.
“The environment has become a political priority for the entire region in relation to deforestation and burning that has occurred in some regions of our country,” they said in the statement.
But the bill failed to pass. It was debated for years, and then expired before reaching a vote.
“Nothing came of it,” said Luis María de la Cruz, who does environmental monitoring with Iniciativa Amotocodie.
Many environmental regulations and protected areas were established between 2008 and 2012 under the government of Fernando Lugo, the first president in decades elected from outside the Colorado Party. For that reason, a lot of politicians still ignore them, De la Cruz said.
“It’s political,” he said. “It’s a political issue.”
He said regulations won’t be upheld until there’s a culture shift inside the government — something that’s much harder to effect.
In 2023, UNESCO noted that the buffer and transition zones weren’t clearly defined and asked Paraguay to revise the zoning in line with the three functions of biosphere reserves: conservation, development, and logistical support.
It also requested the development of a comprehensive management plan that includes all stakeholders, with an emphasis on the inclusion of Indigenous communities.
Paraguay is supposed to respond by September 2026, a UNESCO spokesperson said.
Until then, Iniciativa Amotocodie and other advocacy groups continue to speak up about the 2011 resolution and its need to be enforced. They also file objections to specific permits that violate environmental regulations in the reserve, and conduct scientific studies and monitoring of deforestation.
Indigenous communities have also occasionally blocked major highways to protest advancing deforestation by big businesses.
“Our goal is always to protect them, the uncontacted people,” Picanerai said. “Because uncontacted Ayoreo living in isolation can’t go to the press or file claims with the government … We know they’re suffering so we raise our voices to protect them.”
Banner image: Land deforested for livestock near the Chaco Biosphere Reserve. Image by Aldo Benítez.
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