Gran Chaco

The Gran Chaco (also called Chaco or Chaco Plain) is a huge dry lowland area in central South America. It covers more than one million square kilometers across eastern Bolivia, western Paraguay, northern Argentina, and parts of Brazil. It is part of the Río de la Plata basin.

The Gran Chaco has many different kinds of plants and animals. It includes tropical and subtropical dry forests, thorn scrub, savannas, wetlands, and palm groves. This makes it the second-largest forested area in South America and a place of great natural richness.

The region is home to thousands of plant species and many animals, such as jaguars, giant armadillos, peccaries, and maned wolves. The forests and soils there help store carbon and manage water, which is important for the climate.

For many centuries, the Gran Chaco has been home to Indigenous peoples like the Wichí, Qom, Pilagá, Guaraní, and Ayoreo. Today, about 4 million people live there, many still connected to the land.

Recently, the Gran Chaco has faced serious environmental problems. Activities like cattle ranching, soybean farming, illegal logging, and fires have caused large areas of forest to disappear. In Argentina alone, about seven million hectares of forest were lost between 1998 and 2023. Efforts to protect the area include creating parks like Kaa-Iya National Park in Bolivia and working with local communities to care for the land.

Toponymy

The name Chaco comes from the Quechua word chaqu, which means "hunting land". Quechua is an ancient language from the Andes and highlands of South America. The name likely comes from the many animals that live in the region.

Geography

The Gran Chaco is a very large area in South America, covering about 1,066,000 km². It is the second largest forest in the continent and lies west of the Paraguay River and east of the Andes. This region stretches across parts of Paraguay, Bolivia, and Argentina.

The land can be divided into different parts. In the south, it is called the Southern Chaco and blends into the Pampa region. In the middle, it is known as the Central Chaco, and in the north, it is the Northern Chaco, which reaches into the Pantanal of Brazil. The Northern Chaco has dry areas closer to the mountains and wetter areas further east with more trees and grasses. The land is mostly flat and has some areas good for growing crops, but farming can be difficult because of dry weather and soil that can erode easily. The region provides valuable wood and materials for making things like soap.

History

The Chaco was home to nomadic groups, especially the Guaycuru, who resisted Spanish control for many years.

Before these countries gained independence, the area was known by the Spaniards as Chiquitos.

Later, the Gran Chaco became a disputed land among Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay. This led to the Gran Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia from 1932 to 1935. A treaty in 1938 settled the border, giving most of the land to Paraguay and a small part to Bolivia. Oil was finally found in the area in 2012.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Mennonites from Canada and the USSR settled in the Paraguayan part of the Chaco, creating successful communities.

Today, the region has over 9 million people spread across Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil, with some in Paraguay. Efforts to build roads in the 1960s helped development in the area.

Flora

The Gran Chaco is home to a wide variety of plants and animals, making it a place of great natural richness. It has around 3,400 different kinds of plants, 500 types of birds, 150 kinds of mammals, and 220 species of reptiles and amphibians.

The plants in the Gran Chaco vary greatly because the area is so large. The main types of vegetation include forests that lose their leaves during dry seasons, with layers such as tall trees, smaller trees, shrubs, and grasses. You can also find forests along rivers, wet areas, open grasslands, and cactus patches.

Fauna

The Gran Chaco is full of different animals, with about 3,400 plants, 500 birds, 150 mammals, and 220 reptiles and amphibians. You can find animals usually seen in tropical and subtropical forests, such as jaguars, howler monkeys, peccaries, deer, and tapirs, especially in the eastern part called the Humid Chaco.

Armadillos are very common here, including the nine-banded armadillo, which lives as far north as the southern US, and the southern three-banded armadillo. The pink fairy armadillo lives only in this area. The giant armadillo can be seen in the drier western part. Other special animals include the San Luis tuco-tuco, a small rodent found only in the Argentinian Chaco, and the Chacoan peccary, which was thought to be gone until it was seen again in 1975. Many birds live here too, such as the black-legged seriema, blue-crowned parakeet, and Picui ground dove.

Conservation

The Gran Chaco is one of South America's last places where people can start farming. It has very few people and roads, making it hard to grow crops, except in special areas called Mennonite colonies. Between 2000 and 2019, forests in the Gran Chaco shrank by about 20%, especially in Paraguay.

The grasslands in this area are changing, with more bushes growing, which makes it hard for animals to live there. This is partly because there are fewer wildfires and more animals eating the plants.

The Gran Chaco might be good for growing plants used for fuel, but this could put pressure on the land. Some plants like Jatropha and sweet sorghum could be grown there, but this could also hurt the natural homes of animals and plants. Paraguay has lost a lot of its forests, and its dry forests are disappearing quickly.

The Gran Chaco has been losing trees faster than almost any other place in the world. In Argentina, about 100,000 hectares of forest are lost each year. Big companies are buying land in Paraguay, and sometimes cut trees without permission, which takes away land from local communities.

Protected areas

A study in 2017 found that about 22% of the Gran Chaco is protected. This includes parts of the land where animals and plants can grow without being disturbed.

One big protected area is the Kaa-Iya del Gran Chaco National Park in Bolivia. It was created in 1995 and is managed by local indigenous groups, such as the Izoceño Guaraní, Ayoreode, and Chiquitano. Other protected areas are in Paraguay and Argentina.

See also: National Parks in the Chaco, Paraguay

Administrative divisions in the Gran Chaco

The Gran Chaco spans several areas in South America. It includes parts of eastern Bolivia, western Paraguay, northern Argentina, and some parts of Brazil.

The following Argentine provinces, Bolivian and Paraguayan departments, and Brazilian states lie in the Gran Chaco area, either entirely or in part.

Indigenous peoples

The Gran Chaco is home to many different groups of people who have lived in the area for a very long time. Some of these groups include the Abipón in Argentina, the Angaite in Paraguay, and the Ayoreo in Bolivia and Paraguay.

Other groups include the Chamacoco in Paraguay, the Chané in Argentina and Bolivia, and the Chiquitano in Bolivia. Many of these people speak languages from the Mataco–Guaicuru family.