The Chaco, which is divided among Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, is considered one of the most important bioregions on the planet due to its high diversity of endemic fauna and flora. The Chaco also contributes significantly to the operation and regulation of one of the largest river basins in the world, “El Rio de la Plata”. However, increasing disturbances from human activities, in particular commercial agriculture, have caused one of the highest rates of natural vegetation loss at global scale, affecting especially dry forests.

CartoChaco, a new web-based knowledge platform dedicated to the Gran Chaco region, was launched on 28 July in Asuncion, Paraguay.

It’s the result of a partnership between Guyra/Paraguay, InfoAmazonia and Terra-i/CIAT, andwas created to raise awareness of the threats to natural habitats in this rich bioregion. The platform uses multiple geo-technologies and provides easy access to relevant events and research carried in the Chaco, especially in the form of user-friendly thematic maps and visualizations of data (using MapBox), monthly reports of natural vegetation changes provided by Guyra and Terra-i, as well as geo-tagged new stories.