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This area used to be a forest in the mid 1990s. Now it has been completely cleared.

Deforestation is making the Chaco forests disappear. The causes? Furniture-making, firewood and ever-expanding soybean plantations.

The Gran Chaco is an extensive and mostly flat region in the center of South America. It occupies 1,000,000 Km2, half of which are located in Argentina. It represents the second largest forested region in the continent and the most important one in Argentina. It presents important climatic gradients in rainfall and temperature. It includes tropical as well as subtropical environments like dry and humid forests, wetlands and flood grasslands. Thorny species are common, specially in the dryer areas. Flora includes quebracho trees (Schinopsis spp.) and algarrobo trees (Prosopis spp.). Among the fauna one can find caimans (Caiman spp.), capybaras (Hidrocaeris hidrocaeris), brocket deers (Mazama sp.) and black howler monkey (Alouatta caraya). Other, more uncommon species like the Giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus) are found in the dry portion of the Chaco.