Deforestation in Paraguay

The main causes of deforestation in Paraguay are the expansion of the agricultural frontier and livestock farming.^[2] Indirect causes of deforestation include a low level of institutionalization and difficulties in implementing territorial planning schemes.^[2] Between 1987 and 2012, around 44,000 square kilometers of forests were lost in Paraguay, mainly due to the expansion of cattle farms in the western part of the country.^[8]

A significant part of deforestation occurs on illegally acquired lands. The high concentration of land ownership in large territorial areas drives the advance of the agricultural frontier and livestock farming.^[2] The Gini coefficient for the land (an indicator between 0 and 1 where 1 represents the maximum inequality), for Paraguay is 0.93, the most unequal land ownership in Latin America.^[1] This great inequality in land distribution dates back to the Triple Allicane War, with Paraguay losing more than 334,000 square kilometers to Brazil, resulting in a consolidation of an oligarchic states and the formation of large estates. An added problem is that some lands have ceased to be arable due to land degradation and massive use of agrochemicals. This problem, together with the rise in poverty drives migration to cities, where poverty belts grow. Due to the deepening of the crisis of peasant agriculture and persecution of landless peasants who make occupations, there was a higher population growth between 2008 and 2017 in cities such as Limpio and Villa Hayes. Landless peasants are involved in occupying land illegaly, sometimes called invadors.^[10]

In 2023 and 2024, in the Western Region, most of the fires occurred in the Presidente Hayes Department. During the same years, in the Eastern Region, the San Pedro Department had the most fires.^[11] Reported on the 1st of October 2020, when within 24 hours, there were more than 12,000 fires raging in Paraguay, the Presidente Hayes Department was the department with the highest number of fires in Paraguay, with 8,617 different fires recorded in the last 24 hours, with the city of Villa Hayes concentrating most of them with 6,105 hotspots in the same time period.^[12]

An investigation by the NGO Earthsight in September 2020 exposed the company Cooperativa Chortitzer's role in the illegal encroachment and deforesting of 2,600 hectares within the Ayoreo Totobiegosode Natural and Cultural Heritage site. Located in the Alto Paraguay region of the Paraguayan Chaco, this territory belongs to the last indigenous group in South America living in voluntary isolation outside the Amazon. The deforestation was driven by the goal to clear land for cattle to supply the leather used in European luxury car interiors,^[13] of car companies Jaguar Land Rover and BMW.^[14]

Paraguay is Latin America’s largest marijuana producer, and this has caused severe deforestation. In October 2020 more than 5,000 forest fires were intentionally set, which the government linked to agricultural activities or marijuana cultivation.^[15]

According to data from the Instituto Forestal Nacional (INFONA), in 2019, 2,450,749 hectares were burned. In 2020, 3,494,109 hectares and in 2023, 1,119,096 hectares. The majority of the fires are caused by human activities.^[11] Anthropogenic fires are utilized by the agribusiness sector as a tool to facilitate illegal land grabbing and the expansion of the agricultural frontier. There are almost no state controls to enforce environmental and labor regulations, resulting in displacement of indigenous communities such as the Ayoreo.^[16]

Invadors, sometimes armed, for example groups who engage in cattle rustling, are named as illegally burning pastures and occupying land.^[17][18] In December 2025, a failed attempt to invade the 'Lucipar' ranch in the San Pedro department, resulted in the detention of 42 invadors. The group identifies itself as "Sin Tierra" / "Campesinos Sin Tierra".^[19]

On February 5, 2026, a property in Villa Hayes, which had been illegally occupied for the second time for about a week, was affected by a large fire that ultimately consumed around 500 hectares. The invadors were believed to be the only people present at the site. It is suspected that the fire was started by a group of invaders identifying themselves as "Sin Tierra" / "Campesinos Sin Tierra". The smoke from the fire reached the city of Asunción.^[20][21][22]

Since 2019 to August 2021, the Paraguayan National Police have recorded 955 private property invasions, with over 221 occurring in Asunción and 211 in the Central Department. Councilman Álvaro Grau has claimed there is a big lucrative business behind the invadors, but that the process is disguised as agrarian reform, and that the occupations also extend beyond rural areas, affecting urban farms and construction lots.^[23][24]

• 
  A sattelite image showing the same area in the Gran Chaco, forested in 1985 (slide to the other image in this slideshow to see the same area in 2025).
• 
  A sattelite image showing the same area in the Gran Chaco, deforested in 2025 and changed in land use to agriculture (slide to the other image in this slideshow to see the same area in 1985).

Global Forest Watch publishes annual estimates of tree cover loss and 2000 tree cover extent derived from time-series analysis of Landsat satellite imagery in the Global Forest Change dataset.^{[25][26][27][28]} In this framework, tree cover refers to vegetation taller than 5 m (including natural forests and tree plantations), and tree cover loss is defined as the complete removal of tree cover canopy for a given year, regardless of cause.^[29]

For Paraguay, country statistics report cumulative tree cover loss of 7,218,927 ha (72,189.27 km²) from 2001 to 2024 (about 29.7% of its 2000 tree cover area).^[25] For tree cover density greater than 30%, country statistics report a 2000 tree cover extent of 24,273,209 ha (242,732.09 km²).^[25] The charts and table below display this data. In simple terms, the annual loss number is the area where tree cover disappeared in that year, and the extent number shows what remains of the 2000 tree cover baseline after subtracting cumulative loss. Forest regrowth is not included in the dataset.^[25][29]

Under the UNFCCC REDD+ framework, Paraguay has submitted two national forest reference emission level (FREL) packages. On the UNFCCC REDD+ Web Platform, both the 2016 and 2022 packages are listed as having assessed reference levels and reported national strategies and safeguards; a national forest monitoring system is listed as reported for the 2016 package but as "not reported" for the 2022 package.^[30]

The first assessed FREL, submitted in 2016, covered the REDD+ activity "reducing emissions from deforestation" at national scale. Using a 2000-2015 historical reference period, the modified and assessed FREL was 58,763,376.14 t CO2 eq per year, revised from 60,388,964.99 t CO2 eq per year in the original submission.^[31] The technical assessment states that the benchmark represented the annual average of CO2 emissions from gross deforestation in native forests, and included above-ground biomass, below-ground biomass and understory vegetation, while excluding deadwood, litter and soil organic carbon.^[31]

A second national FREL, submitted in 2022, again covered reducing emissions from deforestation at national scale. Using a 2012-2019 historical reference period, the modified and assessed FREL was 53,943,964.4 t CO2 eq per year, revised from 53,116,279.0 t CO2 eq per year in the original submission.^[32] The technical assessment states that it again represented annual average CO2 emissions from gross deforestation and included above-ground biomass, below-ground biomass and understory vegetation, while excluding deadwood, litter and soil organic carbon.^[32]

• Environmental issues in Paraguay
• Deforestation in Brazil