location: Paraguay

location: Paraguay

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Smallest wildcat of the Atlantic Forest faces enormous threats
- The southern tiger cat (Leopardus guttulus) is at great risk due to the relentless destruction of its habitat, mainly caused by deforestation.
- Its distribution is limited to the Atlantic Forest, in areas bordering Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina and part of Bolivia; the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has classified the southern tiger cat as vulnerable, but in Paraguay its situation is more critical, where it is endangered.
- Little is known about its population size and behavior — in fact, little is known about the species at all; just 10 years ago, it was still considered a subspecies of the oncilla (L. tigrinus).

New Paraguay law aims to improve carbon credit market
- A new law in Paraguay creates a more organized, transparent carbon credit system but might also complicate the way credits are bought and sold.
- The law creates a registry for carbon credit projects and ensures land isn’t being assigned more than once.
- The Gran Chaco, South America’s second-largest forest, has been of particular interest to the carbon credit market, as there are concerns about deforestation in the area.

Infrastructure in the Pan Amazon: Railroad development
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.

Infrastructure in the Pan Amazon: Waterway options
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.

Expanding agriculture could worsen flooding in South American plains, study says
- The South American plains, including Las Pampas and the Gran Chaco, have seen agricultural activity expand drastically to meet international demand.
- A new study published last month in Science found that agriculture is exacerbating flooding in the region, which could disrupt food supplies and prices in the future.
- The study said dedicating more space to deeper-rooted forests and developing crop rotations with more flexible water table depths could stave off disaster.

A mega-highway threatens South America’s vulnerable Gran Chaco
- Dubbed the new Panama Canal, the 2,290-kilometer (1,423-mile) Bioceanic Corridor will connect Chile to Brazil via Argentina and Paraguay and aim to reduce freight transport costs.
- The highway crosses the Gran Chaco, one of the world’s most threatened biomes, which has already lost a fifth of its forest since 1985 due to agricultural expansion.
- Conservationists warn that the highway will lead to a surge in deforestation and an increase in the number of vehicle collisions, putting both people and wildlife at risk.
- Mitigating the environmental and social risks associated with the highway requires stronger political will and more robust implementation of protective regulations, experts say.

Report links financial giants to deforestation of Paraguay’s Gran Chaco
- Major banks and financial institutions including BlackRock, BNP Paribas, HSBC and Santander continue to hold substantial shares in – or provide financial services to – beef companies linked to illegal deforestation in the Gran Chaco region of Paraguay.
- A report by rights group Global Witness released last month says these financiers knowingly bankroll beef traders accused of having links to deforestation, despite warnings in 2020 by U.K.-based NGO Earthsight about the beef industry’s impact on the Gran Chaco.
- Almost all of the banks, investment managers and pension funds named in the new report are members of voluntary initiatives to eliminate and reverse commodity-driven deforestation from their portfolios.
- Paraguay has one of the highest rates of tropical deforestation in the world, having lost a quarter of its net forest cover between 2000 and 2020 — an area almost twice the size of Belgium.

Mennonite colonies linked to deforestation of Indigenous territories and protected areas in Paraguay
- Satellite data and imagery show the expansion of large agricultural fields whittling away at already-fragmented tracts of primary forest in eastern Paraguay’s Pindo’I Indigenous Territory over the past several years.
- Deforestation in Indigenous territories is illegal in Paraguay.
- Indigenous residents and advocates told Mongabay that the clearing is being done by one of the region’s Mennonite colonies; a representative from the colony refuted these claims.
- Deforestation for large-scale agriculture is also expanding in western Paraguay, which sources attribute to other Mennonite colonies.

Paraguay weighs natural gas drilling in Médanos del Chaco National Park
- Congress is considering opening up natural gas exploration and extraction in Médanos del Chaco National Park, a protected area in Paraguay’s Gran Chaco, a savannah and dry forest ecosystem along the northwest border.
- The 605,075-hectare (1,495,172-acre) national park has unique ecosystems and endemic flora and fauna, and is home to several Indigenous communities who rely on freshwater reserves that could be compromised by future drilling.
- Modifications to a key law were approved by the country’s chamber of deputies last year then rejected by the senate this week. But it has another opportunity to pass later this year.

Indigenous group defends uncontacted relatives from cattle onslaught in the Gran Chaco
- The Gran Chaco, a dry forest that stretches across Paraguay, Bolivia, and Argentina, is one of the fastest-disappearing ecosystems on the planet, having lost 20% of forest cover between 2000 and 2019, according to a recent study.
- The Chaco is home to the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode, one of the only known “uncontacted” Indigenous groups in South America outside of the Amazon; in early 2021, members of this group approached a camp of their contacted relatives to express their concerns about escalating forest destruction.
- The contacted Ayoreo-Totobiegosode have been engaged in a legal battle for their traditional homelands for nearly 30 years, and although Paraguay designated this region as a protected area in 2001, several cattle-ranching companies have obtained land titles within the region, with deforestation continuing.
- Last month, the tribe made further appeals to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights requesting the official title to their traditional lands.

Luxury wood market driving extinction of rare ipê trees, report warns
- Demand for wood from ipê trees in the Amazon Basin could lead to their extinction if better international trade regulations aren’t implemented soon, according to a new report from Forest Trends.
- Ipê hardwood is in high demand in the luxury timber market, especially for outdoor boardwalks, decks and furniture, as well as hardwood floors.
- The Forest Trends report urges officials to list the rare species under CITES, the international convention regulating the trade of threatened species.

Threatened wetlands in Paraguay’s Lake Ypacaraí raise legal questions
- Wetlands surrounding the protected Lake Ypacaraí in Paraguay are being filled in to allow for the construction of housing and tourism projects.
- In addition to providing habitats for countless species of flora and fauna, the wetlands act as a filter for freshwater and help control flooding and erosion.
- The projects were approved by the Ministry of Environment, sparking outcry from congressmen who want to know if protected area laws are being ignored in favor of urban development.

Paraguay’s drought hits biodiversity, Indigenous communities the hardest
- Record-breaking heat waves in Paraguay have led to water shortages and forest fires that threaten local biodiversity and many of the Indigenous communities who steward it.
- Indigenous groups like the Aché and Ava Guaraní have lost their crops and likely face food insecurity should the drought continue throughout 2022.
- Turtles, aquatic mammals and fish that usually occupy now-dried-up wetlands have been forced into the major rivers, where they face a greater threat from overfishing.

Wildlife death toll from 2020 Pantanal fires tops 17 million, study finds
- A new study has found that nearly 17 million animals died in the Pantanal fires in 2020.
- The researchers came to this estimate by conducting distance sampling surveys, walking tracts of the Pantanal shortly after the fires and counting the number of dead vertebrates they encountered.
- However, the researchers say this is likely to be an underestimate since animals may have died underground or may have died later from burn injuries.
- The 2020 fires burned 4.5 million hectares (11 million acres) of the Pantanal, which is about 30% of the entire biome.

Paraguay failed to stop soy farms from poisoning Indigenous land, UN says
- The U.N. Human Rights Committee says the Paraguayan government failed to stop the illegal use of pesticides being sprayed on the land of the Ava Guarani Indigenous community.
- For more than a decade, the fumigation from neighboring soybean plantations killed the community’s plants and animals, while creating health issues for many residents.
- As a result, younger generations of Ava Guarani were unable to learn the community’s cultural customs, and many moved away from the community.
- Paraguay has the laws and institutions in place to regulate commercial agriculture but has demonstrated an unwillingness to apply them, according to the committee.

Report: Luxury carmakers still sourcing deforestation-linked leather from Paraguay
- The forests of the Gran Chaco in Paraguay, home of one of the world’s last uncontacted Indigenous nations, continue to be the target of illegal deforestation linked to luxury automakers such as BMW and Jaguar Land Rover.
- Two of three Paraguayan leather exporters shown to be buying hides from cattle grazed in illegally deforested parts of the Gran Chaco have increased their sales to Europe since the issue came to light in September 2020.
- Major European automakers are still unable to demonstrate how their supply chains are shielded from illegal deforestation in Paraguay.

The Pantanal is burning again. Will it be another devastating year?
- Fires have reignited in the Pantanal region of South America, the world’s largest tropical wetland, a year after it lost 30% of its biome to the catastrophic fires of 2020.
- With more than 700,000 hectares (1.7 million acres) of the Pantanal already burned, some experts say this year’s fires could be nearly as devastating as last year’s if the situation is not carefully managed and the current fires are not contained.
- Others are not as concerned, noting that fire is part of the natural ecological process in the Pantanal, and that this year’s fires aren’t nearly as damaging or substantial as last year’s.
- One marked difference between 2020 and 2021 is this year’s increased efforts to fight the fires, with government agencies, NGOs and communities working together to protect the Pantanal.

One of South America’s most abundant felids: Geoffroy’s cat | Candid Animal Cam
- Every two weeks, Mongabay brings you a new episode of Candid Animal Cam, our show featuring animals caught on camera traps around the world and hosted by Romi Castagnino, our writer and conservation scientist.

Soy and cattle team up to drive deforestation in South America: Study
- Between 2000 and 2019, the production of soybean in South America has doubled, covering an area larger than the state of California.
- Soybean farms are typically planted in old cattle pastures, and as soy encroaches, pasture is forced into new frontiers, driving deforestation and fires.
- Although soy was found to be largely an indirect driver of deforestation, policies addressing deforestation have to consider multiple commodities at once, such as the relationship between beef and soy.
- Increased commitments by companies to source from “zero-deforestation” supply chains are a promising strategy, but in order to work, the market needs to be more transparent.

Drugs, fire, settlers poised to wipe out one of Paraguay’s most biodiverse forests
- San Rafael National Park/Proposed National Reserve encompasses one of the most unique, biodiverse and threatened forests in Paraguay.
- Fires in late 2020 burned an estimated 45% of the reserve, and biologists say it may take decades for the area to recover.
- Meanwhile, drug traffickers are expanding illegal marijuana plantations within San Rafael and on May 21, more than a hundred outsiders reportedly crossed into the reserve where they are clearing trees and establishing settlements.
- Despite its international categorization as a national park, a 2002 recategorization error left San Rafael unrecognized as a protected area in Paraguay, making the area ineligible for proper protection.

European public roundly rejects Brazil trade deal unless Amazon protected
- The gigantic trade agreement between the European Union and the Mercosur South American bloc (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay), if ratified, would be the biggest trade deal in history, totaling US $19 trillion.
- However, an extremely poor environmental record by the Mercosur nations, especially Brazil, has become a stumbling block to clinching the agreement. In new polling 75% of respondents in 12 European nations say the EU-Mercosur trade pact should not be ratified if Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil doesn’t end Amazon deforestation.
- France, the Parliaments of the Netherlands, Austria and Belgium’s Walloon region, have announced they will not endorse the trade pact. The ratification also finds resistance by Ireland and Luxembourg. Portugal’s government appears ready to move forward with ratification without environmental safeguards put in place.

As forests shrink, mammals are stressed out— with possible fallout for humans
- Fur samples collected from small rodents and marsupials in the Atlantic Forest of Paraguay showed that the animals in the smaller forest fragments had elevated levels of stress hormones.
- While small amounts of acute stress can help an animal to get out of a bad situation, prolonged stress levels weaken the immune system, making them more susceptible to disease.
- Pathogen spillover (from animals to humans) seems more likely in all animals that are crowded together in forest fragments and stressed out, underscoring the importance of the One Health approach, which recognizes the connection between human, environment, and animal health.

Paraguay whistleblowers allege illegal deforestation cover up
- Senior officials at Paraguay’s Environment Ministry are allegedly helping cover up illegal deforestation by the country’s cattle industry.
- Last month, London-based NGO Earthsight reported that major European automakers, including Jaguar Land Rover and BMW, were using leather linked to illegal deforestation in Paraguay.
- Damning new testimony by current and former ministry employees suggests that in many cases environmental impact assessment applications are made long after the land in question has been cleared.

‘Digital land grab’ deprives traditional LatAm peoples of ancestral lands: Report
- South American nations, including Brazil and Colombia, are increasingly using georeferencing technology for registering land ownership.
- However, if this high-tech digital technique is not backed up by traditional ground truthing surveys, it can be used by landgrabbers and agribusiness companies to fraudulently obtain deeds depriving traditional communities of their collective ancestral lands, according to a new report.
- The georeferenced process is being partly funded by the World Bank, which has provided US $45.5 million for digital registration of private rural properties in Brazil. Georeferencing is allowing the international financial sector to play a key role in converting large tracts of rainforest and savanna into agribusiness lands.
- To prevent this form of land theft, prospective landowners’ claims need to be independently verified via a centralized governmental land registration system organized to resolve land conflicts and to detect and eliminate local and regional corruption.

Automakers fuelling deforestation, dispossession in Paraguay’s Gran Chaco: report
- Major European automakers including Jaguar Land Rover and BMW use leather linked to illegal deforestation in Paraguay forests home to one of the world’s last uncontacted tribes.
- A report by London-based NGO Earthsight released last week following a years-long undercover investigation revealed links to illegal clearances of forest in the Chaco region of Paraguay.
- The forests of the Gran Chaco, a lowland region straddling Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, are home to at-risk fauna such as jaguars and giant anteaters, whose populations have been devastated by cattle ranching and soybean cultivation.

For the Pantanal’s jaguars, fires bring ‘death by a thousand needle wounds’
- The Pantanal, the world’s largest wetland region, is experiencing catastrophic fires, with current estimates stating that approximately 3.3 million hectares (8.1 million acres), or 22% of the region, have gone up in flames.
- There are approximately 2,000 jaguars living in the Pantanal’s jaguar corridor, and conservationists estimate that about 600 jaguars have had their habitat impacted by the fires, as well as many injured or killed.
- Jaguars are having trouble escaping the situation due to the fires burning underground, which makes them difficult to visually detect.
- While it’s not entirely clear how the fires will affect jaguar populations into the future, the fires could lead to food insecurity issues and genetic instability, according to experts.

Understaffed and under threat: Paraguay’s park rangers pay the ultimate price
- Protected areas in eastern Paraguay are beset by illegal marijuana cultivation and logging. Government interventions have had limited success, with clearing resuming shortly after agents leave an area.
- Park rangers tasked with monitoring the country’s reserves and parks say they routinely encounter hostile criminal groups when on patrol. These encounters can take a violent turn – several rangers have been murdered over the past decade while patrolling protected areas for illegal activity.
- According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the ideal number of park rangers is one for every 1,000 hectares. However, in Paraguay, there is just one park ranger for more than 38,000 hectares.
- Rangers say they need more resources and support to do their job safely and effectively.

No choice: Why communities in Paraguay are cutting down forests to survive
- Illegal deforestation for marijuana cultivation is a growing problem for eastern Paraguay’s protected areas.
- Sources say much of the clearing is done by indigenous community members and small farmers who are beset by poverty and have no other options.
- A joint project between the Paraguayan government and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations seeks to provide more opportunities for rural communities, but has been stymied by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Marijuana farms expand in Paraguay reserve despite gov’t crackdowns
- Approximately 600 metric tons of marijuana was seized by agents of Paraguay’s National Anti-Drug Secretariat (SENAD) in an operation in the heart of the forests of Morombí Reserve, between the departments of Canindeyú and Caaguazú.
- Over eight days, some 70 officers destroyed 202 hectares of marijuana and dismantled 23 camps set up by drug traffickers.
- But sources say this is just the tip of the iceberg and many more illegal marijuana farms are pockmarked throughout Morombí, increasing by the day. Satellite data support this, showing the reserve’s deforestation rate skyrocketed in 2019 and continues to climb into 2020.

Protected areas in Paraguay hit hard by illegal marijuana farming
- Agriculture has deforested much of eastern Paraguay’s Upper Parana Atlantic Forest, an endangered ecoregion of which less 10% remains today.
- More recently, illegal marijuana cultivation has become a driving force of deforestation in the region. Even protected areas are not immune from destruction, with satellite data and drone footage confirming large swaths of protected primary forest have been cleared for marijuana cropland over the past year. Sources say timber and charcoal are also being produced as by-products of clearing for marijuana and are illegally transported out of protected areas.
- Four protected areas have been particularly affected: Mbaracayú Reserve, San Rafael National Park/Proposed National Reserve, Morombí Reserve and Caazapá National Park.
- Forest rangers working in the protected areas say there aren’t enough enforcement staff to combat the illegal encroachment.

‘On the edge’: Endangered forest cleared for marijuana in Paraguay
- The Upper Parana is also one of the world’s most endangered forests. The ecoregion has been almost entirely cleared in Brazil, and Argentina holds the largest remaining areas of connected habitat. In Paraguay, studies estimate less than 10% remains, mostly as fragmented forest islands scatted across a largely unprotected, denuded landscape.
- Agriculture is the driving force of deforestation in Paraguay, with much of the country’s forests cleared legally to make way for cattle, soy, corn and sugar cane fields over the past half-century.
- But clearing for illicit marijuana cultivation is also taking a toll on the eastern Paraguay’s forests. According to the National Anti-Drug Secretariat (SENAD), 81,871 kilos (180,494 pounds) of marijuana were seized and 797 parcels were destroyed in Paraguay’s portion of the Upper Parana Atlantic Forest between 2015 and 2020. Investigation by Mongabay and La Nación found marijuana farms carved out of several national parks and reserves in eastern Paraguay.
- Government officials and NGO representatives say to more enforcement is needed on the ground, and that those found guilty of environmental crimes should be given harsher sentences.

Saving the Gran Chaco: Conservationists demand protection before it’s too late
- The Gran Chaco is South America’s second-largest forest biome, and is home to thousands of species.
- The Chaco has lost around 20 percent of its forest cover since 1985 as land is cleared for agriculture. The Argentine portion has lost 30 percent.
- In response, a project called the Argentine Gran Chaco 2030 Commitment was created to demand more be done to protect the Chaco. As of Nov. 7, 80 organizations and institutions around the world had signed on in support.

Investigation reveals illegal cattle ranching in Paraguay’s vanishing Chaco
- In the buffer zone around the Defensores del Chaco National Park– the largest forest reserve in the country – new areas have been cleared to make way for livestock, while long-established cattle ranches are operating without environmental licenses.
- According to official data from the Ministry of the Environment, more than a million hectares (10,000 square kilometers) were cleared in Paraguay’s Chaco ecosystem between January 2014 and January 2018.
- The Ministry of the Environment has just 12 inspectors to deal with all the environmental complaints across the country.

Hunting, agriculture driving rapid decline of jaguars in South America’s Gran Chaco
- New research finds that one-third of critical jaguar habitat in the Gran Chaco, South America’s largest tropical dry forest, has been lost since the mid-1980s.
- According to the study, led by researchers at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU Berlin) and published in the journal Diversity and Distributions this week, deforestation driven by agricultural expansion — mainly for soy and cattle production — has caused the steep decline of jaguar habitat in the region.
- Meanwhile, the conversion of jaguar habitat into cropland and pastureland gives hunters easier access to the forest. Thus overhunting and persecution by cattle ranchers has also become one of the chief causes of the big cat’s shrinking numbers, the study found.

Earth has more trees now than 35 years ago
- Tree cover increased globally over the past 35 years, finds a paper published in the journal Nature.
- The study, led by Xiao-Peng Song and Matthew Hansen of the University of Maryland, is based on analysis of satellite data from 1982 to 2016.
- The research found that tree cover loss on the tropics was outweighed by tree cover gain in subtropical, temperate, boreal, and polar regions.
- However all the tree cover data comes with an important caveat: tree cover is not necessarily forest cover.

South American soy fed to EU livestock drives Gran Chaco deforestation
- European fast food firms and supermarkets often obtain the meat they sell from chickens, pigs, and cows raised in Europe. However, the feed, especially soy, consumed by the livestock often comes from South America, where the Cerrado biome and Gran Chaco ecosystem are rapidly being deforested by soy producers.
- The Gran Chaco is a unique biodiverse region covering 1.28 million square kilometers and encompasses parts of Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and a tiny portion of Brazil. It is home to an estimated 3,400 plant species, 500 birds, 150 mammals and 220 reptiles and amphibians.
- While many large fast food companies and supermarkets have vowed to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains, these companies still buy soy grown with large amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and often grown on South American land recently converted from forest and native vegetation.
- The soy grown in the Gran Chaco and Cerrado is purchased by Bunge, ADM, Cargill and other transnational and Brazilian commodities traders who then sell most of it to the EU and China. While the 2006 Amazon Soy Moratorium largely eliminated new deforestation due to soy in the Amazon, no such agreement protects the Gran Chaco.

Tech and collaboration are putting indigenous land rights on the map
- Tierras Indígenas’ advanced mapping technology is bringing South America’s Chaco ecosystem into the spotlight and allowing indigenous groups to digitally map out their territories in an effort to protect their forests.
- Mapping indigenous land rights and forest change requires collaboration among various stakeholders and standardization of data collection, using clear protocols, precise data, and participatory management.
- By accessing the Global Forest Watch and Tierras Indígenas platforms, users can view forest change in particular areas within the Gran Chaco ecoregion, as well as the legal status of indigenous land claims to those same areas.

EU-LatAm trade deal good for agribusiness; bad for Amazon, climate – analysis
- The EU-Mercosur trade deal, being concluded this month by the European Union and the South American trade bloc (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) is being negotiated in secret. However, part of the document has been leaked to Greenpeace, alarming environmentalists.
- The leaked secret trade documents show that the accord would encourage the export of high-value goods, like automobiles, from Europe to Latin American, while encouraging the export of huge amounts of low-value products – including beef and soy – from South America.
- This emphasis on production and international consumption could greatly increase the need for agricultural land in Latin America, and result in a major increase in deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado, and Argentine Chaco.
- The conversion of forests to crop and range lands could significantly decrease carbon storage, leading to a rise in carbon emissions that could help push global temperatures more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century, with potentially catastrophic results for ecosystems and civilization.

Curiosity saves the cat: Tourism helps reinvent the jaguar
- Retaliatory killings of jaguar by cattle ranchers currently threaten the recovery of the species and the long-term viability of tour operators dependent on their presence.
- A recent study found that the value of jaguars to tourism (US$6,827,392) was far in excess of the cost to ranchers from depredation of their cattle (US$121,500).
- Tourists were overwhelmingly receptive to the idea of donating to a compensation fund for ranchers that live harmoniously with jaguars.

Charcoal and cattle ranching tearing apart the Gran Chaco
- The year-long probe of Paraguay’s charcoal exports by the NGO Earthsight revealed that much of the product was coming from the Chaco, the world’s fastest-disappearing tropical forest.
- Suppliers appear to have reassured international supermarket chains that it was sustainable and that they had certification from international groups such as FSC and PEFC.
- But further digging by Earthsight revealed that the charcoal production methods used may not fit with the intent of certification.
- Several grocery store chains mentioned in the report have said they’ll take a closer look at their supply chains, and the certification body PEFC is reexamining how its own standards are applied.

New lizard discovered in Paraguay lives only on private reserve that is up for sale
- André Luiz G. Carvalho of the American Museum of Natural History in New York described the three new species — T. lagunablanca, T. tarara, and T. teyumirim — in a paper published in the journal American Museum Novitates.
- Tropidurus lagunablanca was first discovered by Fundacion Para La Tierra, a conservation NGO in Paraguay. The lizard was named after the Reserva Natural Laguna Blanca and has been designated as critically endangered because its range does not appear to extend beyond the 120-hectare protected area.
- the Reserva Natural Laguna Blanca is privately owned, and has lost its official protected status

Photo Essay: Paraguay’s last remnant of intact Atlantic Forest
- In Paraguay, just 13 percent of the original Atlantic Forest cover still remains, and what is left is highly fragmented.
- The one exception is the San Rafael Reserve, 730 square kilometers (281 square miles) of mostly intact Atlantic Forest.
- Despite its official protected status, Sanchez says the San Rafael Reserve is threatened by logging, poaching and forest clearance for agriculture.

Organized crime role in Latin American wildlife trade hidden in shadow
- Potential profits from domestic and international trafficking in rare Amazon parrots, sea cucumbers, totoaba, and other wildlife are soaring — attracting the same Latin American criminal syndicates notorious for drug, gun and human trafficking.
- Interpol and other international policing organizations have so far shown little interest in curbing the escalating Central and South American trade, while continuing to focus efforts in Asia and Africa.
- An October 2015 Cancun, Mexico conference held by the region’s law enforcement officials may herald a new era of cooperation between states as they begin to cooperate to police the trade.

62M ha of Latin American forests cleared for agriculture since 2001

Forest conversion for agriculture in Colombia. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Over 62 million hectares (240,000 square miles) of forest across Latin America — an area roughly the size of Texas or the United Kingdom — were cleared for new croplands and pastureland between 2001 and 2013, find a study published in Environmental Research Letters. […]
Indigenous communities in Paraguay threatened by deforestation despite having land rights

An Ayoreo woman in front of a traditional communal Ayoreo house that was abandoned because of bulldozing activity, according to Survival International. Photo courtesy of Survival International. Their children were the only things they could carry as they fled from the forest-clearing bulldozer, recalls an Ayoreo Totobiegosode woman in a video interview with the human […]
Beef, palm oil, soy, and wood products from 8 countries responsible for 1/3 of forest destruction

Four commodities produced in just eight countries are responsible for a third of the world’s forest loss, according to a new report. Those familiar with the long-standing effort to stop deforestation won’t be surprised by the commodities named: beef, palm oil, soy, and wood products (including timber and paper). Nor will they be very surprised […]
How do we save the world’s vanishing old-growth forests?

Scientists say both rich and developing countries must recognize primary forests as a conservation priority. Primary rainforest in Imbak Canyon in the state of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. The forest is home to pygmy elephants, clouded leopard, orangutans, banteng, and proboscis monkeys among thousands of other species. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. There’s nothing in the […]
Powered by Google, high resolution forest map reveals massive deforestation worldwide

Researchers today released a long-awaited tool that reveals the extent of forest cover loss and gain on a global scale. Powered by Google’s massive computing cloud, the interactive forest map establishes a new baseline for measuring deforestation and forest recovery across all of the world’s countries, biomes, and forest types. The map has far-reaching implications […]
Little NGO takes on goliath task: conserving the vanishing ecosystems of Paraguay

Landlocked in the navel of South America, the forests, wetlands and savannahs of Paraguay boast rich biodiversity and endemic species, yet the unique landscapes of Paraguay also face increasing threats, primarily from agricultural expansion. Controlled burns and clear cutting have become common practice as wildlands are converted for soy and cattle production. In some areas […]
First strike: nearly 200 illegal loggers arrested in massive sting across 12 countries

One-hundred-and-ninety-seven illegal loggers across a dozen Central and South American countries have been arrested during INTERPOL’s first strike against widespread forestry crime. INTERPOL, or The International Criminal Police Organization, worked with local police forces to take a first crack at illegal logging. In all the effort, known as Operation Lead, resulted in the seizure of […]
Dry forests disappearing faster than rainforests in Latin America

Latin American countries lose 4% of dry forests in 9 years Click image to enlarge Countries across Latin America lost 78,000 square kilometers of subtropical and tropical dry broadleaf forests between 2001 and 2010, according to a new satellite-based assessment [PDF] published in the journal Biotropica. The research — based on analysis of data from […]
Animal picture of the day: the prehistoric peccary

The Chacaon peccary, the newest member of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Queens Zoo. Photo by: Julie Larson Maher. The Chacoan peccary (Catagonus wagneri) was only known from fossils and thought extinct, perhaps a victim of the megafaunal extinction that ended the Pleistocene, until researchers in the 1970s stumbled on a living population in Argentina. While […]
Satellite evidence of deforestation in uncontacted tribe’s territory sparks legal action

The destruction of 3,600 hectares (8,900 acres) of the Gran Chaco forest in Paraguay by large Brazilian cattle ranching companies has led to a legal complaint filed by a local indigenous-rights organization, since the land in question was one of the last refuges of a group of uncontacted indigenous people in the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode tribe. The […]
How to save the Pantanal and increase profits for the cattle industry

Continuous versus rotational grazing. Photo courtesy of: Eaton, D. P., Santos, S. A., Santos, M. C. A., Lima, J. V. B. and Keuroghlian, A. 2011. Rotational Grazing of Native Pasturelands in the Pantanal: an effective conservation tool. Tropical Conservation Science. Vol. 4 (1):39-52. The Pantanal spanning Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay is the world’s largest wetland—the […]
New plan underway to save South America’s migratory grassland birds

A meeting between government representatives, scientists, and conservationists in Asuncion, Paraguay this month resulted in the adoption of an action plan to provide urgently needed conservation framework for the migratory birds of South America’s disappearing grasslands. The grasslands of Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia count amount the world’s most valuable ecosystems, and are home […]
Chaco biodiversity expedition suspended

A joint expedition by the Natural History Museum (NHM), London and the Natural History Museum, Asuncion to the dwindling dry forest of the Gran Chaco in Paraguay to record biodiversity, and hopefully uncover ‘hundreds’ of new species, has been suspended by the Paraguayan government. The suspension comes after a local organization voiced concern that the […]
Chaco expedition working to “minimize the risk” of running into uncontacted natives

A joint expedition by the Natural History Museum (NHM), London and the Natural History Museum, Asuncion to study the biodiversity of the dwindling dry forests of Chaco in Paraguay have responded to recent concerns that they risk encountering uncontacted natives, which could potentially threaten the natives’ lives as well as their own. “We’ve sought a […]
Spotted uncontacted native flees, leaving dinner and dish behind
Deforestation threatens uncontacted natives in Paraguay. The man had set up camp and was preparing to cook live turtles for a meal when he was seen by people he did not know. He hid behind a tree and then fled from the camp into the forest, abandoning his uncooked turtles and a clay pot behind. […]
Spotted uncontacted native flees, leaving dinner and dish behind

Deforestation threatens uncontacted natives in Paraguay. The man had set up camp and was preparing to cook live turtles for a meal when he was seen by people he did not know. He hid behind a tree and then fled from the camp into the forest, abandoning his uncooked turtles and a clay pot behind. […]
Can markets protect nature?

An interview with Michael Jenkins, President and CEO of Forest Trends Over the past 30 years billions of dollars has been committed to global conservation efforts, yet forests continue to fall, largely a consequence of economic drivers, including surging global demand for food and fuel. With consumption expected to far outstrip population growth due to […]

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