Deforestation in Paraguay

The deforestation in Paraguay is the process of destruction or depletion of the forest cover in Paraguay. Between 1970 and the year 2000, Paraguay lost more than 50% of its Atlantic Forest cover. Deforestation is also advancing in the Alto Paraguay Department, where most of the forest area was already lost during the period 2007 to 2012.

According to official data by the Servicio Forestal Nacional, in the Eastern Region, in a period of 40 years, between 1945 and 1985, about 5 million hectares of forest were lost, calculated at an average of 123,000 hectares per year. In the period between the years 1968 and 1976, the amount of deforestation in the region rose to 212,000 hectares per year. in the period between 1985 and 1991, according to research by the Carrera de Ingeniería Forestal (CIF, UNA) deforestation rates were higher yet again, at a rate of approximately 300,000 hectares per year, recording the elimination of a total of approximately 2 million hectares of forest.

Between 1990 and 2000, Paraguay lost about 13 percent of its forests, including nearly 40 percent of the Atlantic Forest.

Deforestation rates in the Paraguayan Chaco tripled between 2006 and 2007.

In 2004, Law No. 2524 on Zero Deforestation (Ley de Deforestación Cero) was enacted, which prohibited deforestation in the Eastern Region of Paraguay. In 2020, the law was extended for another ten years.

Between 2001 and 2019, Paraguay was the South American country with the second highest rate of deforestation according to Global Forest Watch (GWF), behind only Brazil.

The Gran Chaco region (stretches across parts of Paraguay, Argentina, and Bolivia), home to the second largest forest in Latin America (behind only the Amazon rainforest) has one of the highest deforestation rates globally. Deforestation has been particularly widespread in Paraguay in recent years. Across all the countries, between 1985 and 2013, more than 142,000 square kilometers of the Gran Chaco's forests (equaling 20% of all forest) was replaced by croplands (38.9%) or grazing lands (61.1%). Of those grazing lands that existed in 1985, about 40% were subsequently converted to cropland.