{"id":502409,"date":"2026-03-29T21:23:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T21:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/502409\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T21:23:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T21:23:29","slug":"how-weaving-glamping-and-kayak-tours-are-helping-to-tackle-deforestation-in-argentinas-gran-chaco-global-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/502409\/","title":{"rendered":"How weaving, glamping and kayak tours are helping to tackle deforestation in Argentina\u2019s Gran Chaco | Global development"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jorge Luna stands in a piece of Argentina<\/a>\u2019s Gran Chaco forest that he calls his own. Birds sing as he surveys skyscraping molle trees, known as pepper trees, palo santo and algarrobo, or carob trees. \u201cIt\u2019s good wood,\u201d says Luna, 55. \u201cI was about to cut them down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Selling timber promises quick and easy money in the sprawling ecosystem that covers parts of Argentina<\/a>, Bolivia, Paraguay and Brazil. But it comes at a steep price, contributing to rampant deforestation and irreversible damage to the forest.<\/p>\n

It is a dilemma faced by many small farmers such as Luna, who was eking out a living raising cows, goats, pigs and horses on his 40 hectares (100 acres) in Chaco province. Financial hardship, lack of information, or shaky land tenure are causing many to sell or lease their plots, often still covered with native forest.<\/p>\n

With deforestation in the region becoming an increasingly urgent issue, conservationists, NGOs and international organisations are working to help small-scale landowners and Indigenous communities establish alternative incomes to enable them to push back against agribusiness and the voracious timber market.<\/p>\n

Luna rejected an offer to cut down the trees, choosing instead to embark on a second career as a forest tourist guide as part of a programme sponsored by Fundaci\u00f3n Rewilding Argentina<\/a>, a non-profit working to restore parts of the Gran Chaco forest. He rents out a small campsite to visitors and takes tourists on kayak tours along the Bermejito River, which runs next to his land.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, you didn\u2019t give the plants value. It was a lack of knowledge of what they meant. Now, every leaf that sprouts has an added value,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Local organisations worked together to persuade the government of Chaco province to turn 128,000 hectares of land into the El Impenetrable national park. Photograph: Anita Pouchard Serra<\/p>\n

Created in 2010 by Tompkins Conservation<\/a>, Rewilding aims to protect vast tracts of territory and create economic opportunities for local communities to prosper, while preserving the biosphere in which they live. It worked alongside 15 other organisations to convince the government of Chaco province to turn 128,000 hectares into El Impenetrable<\/a> national park, officially designated in 2014.<\/p>\n

Since then, Rewilding<\/a> has established a network to support a budding tourism industry. It offers riverside glamping stays, while promoting local and ancestral knowledge as possible sources of income. Women have returned to weaving and artisanal production, as well as providing home cooked meals for visitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very large territory, and to preserve it we need to have residents onboard. So we promote eco-tourism among the local communities,\u201d says Marian Labourt, a spokesperson with Rewilding.<\/p>\n

According to Greenpeace<\/a>, Argentina lost nearly 7m hectares of native forest between 1998 and 2024 \u2013 most of it in the Gran Chaco. Based on satellite imagery analysis<\/a>, an estimated almost 120,000 hectares of forest were lost in northern Argentina in 2024, 10% more than the previous year.<\/p>\n

Environmental lawyers say the Gran Chaco could disappear within two decades if deforestation continues at its current pace. Photograph: Sebastian Pani\/Greenpeace<\/p>\n

The primary causes of forest loss are the expansion of agriculture \u2013 mainly for intensive cattle ranching and genetically modified soya, much of which is exported to Asia and Europe \u2013 and forest fires, which are also affecting Patagonia in Argentina and Chile.<\/p>\n

The Gran Chaco forest also feeds the timber industry, in particular with the quebracho tree, which produces a tannin used in leather products, and carob trees, says Mat\u00edas Almeida, a park ranger in El Impenetrable.<\/p>\n

double quotation markThe Chaco does not receive the same attention as the Amazon \u2013 few people even know it existsEnrique Viale, lawyer and activist<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about one of the biggest semi-arid forests in the world, and it is being lost at an alarming rate,\u201d says Almeida.<\/p>\n

Although Argentina passed a forest protection law<\/a> in 2007 that set limits on logging and called for funds for conservation, deforestation continues. \u201cWe call it the logging mafia,\u201d says Enrique Viale, an Argentine environmental lawyer and activist. \u201cA connection between politicians and the business community that destroys native forests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawyer Enrique Viale says politicians and the business community work together to destroy native forests. Photograph: Harriet Barber<\/p>\n

In 2024, Viale and a group of environmental lawyers filed a criminal complaint<\/a> against politicians, public officials and business owners in Chaco province. The filing detailed how a legal amendment stripped thousands of hectares of forest of their protected status, opening them up to logging.<\/p>\n

As a result of the complaint, the courts ordered a three-month suspension of deforestation<\/a>. But that protection has since lifted.<\/p>\n

Viale and fellow environmental lawyers warn that the Gran Chaco could disappear within two decades if deforestation continues at its current pace. \u201cThe Chaco does not receive the same attention as the Amazon \u2013 few people even know it exists,\u201d Viale says.<\/p>\n

But the success of any project that seeks to protect the environment and provide local communities with economic alternatives hinges on several factors, says Sandra Myrna Diaz, an Argentine ecologist who played a leading role in the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services<\/a> (Ipbes), the UN-backed body for assessing the state of nature.<\/p>\n

The projects must be co-designed with the community so that their long-term objectives are taken into consideration, she says. Community empowerment, an equal distribution of benefits among inhabitants, and capacity building that ensures the initiative can continue even if funding dries up are among the crucial factors, she adds.<\/p>\n

The San Nicolas rest stop next to the Bermejito river. Photograph: Anita Pouchard Serra<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can be a tool, as long as these conditions are met,\u201d Myrna Diaz says. \u201cIf the idea is to do something like parachute conservation, it\u2019s obviously not going to solve anything and could be a step backwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mabel Figueroa, who lives in Pozo La Gringa, a small rural community near El Impenetrable, is one of those who has resumed weaving since the national park opened, selling scarves, blankets and ponchos to tourists.<\/p>\n

She raises sheep and dyes their wool with tree bark and forest plants, reviving an ancestral tradition passed down to her from her mother, who taught her which plants produce which colours.<\/p>\n

The Gran Chaco is one of the biggest semi-arid forests in the world. Photograph: Anita Pouchard Serra<\/p>\n

\u201cQuebracho colorado dyes the wool in reddish-brown tones, palo coca in yellow, and yerba mate in green,\u201d Figueroa says.<\/p>\n

Her son, Alberto Dom\u00ednguez, tends to their animals and grows maize and pumpkins for their own use. \u201cBig landowners buy up land, burn it, run bulldozers over thousands and thousands of hectares and destroy everything,\u201d he says, adding that, each year, the heat has become more intense. \u201cWhat protects us is nature.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jorge Luna stands in a piece of Argentina\u2019s Gran Chaco forest that he calls his own. Birds sing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-502409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}