An equivalent surface to eight cities of Buenos Aires has been devastated. Despite a judicial suspension in force since November 2020, the province of Chaco has lost nearly 170,000 hectares of native forests, according to a new and alarming report of illegal deforestation by Greenpeace.
A recent incursion by the environmental organization into the heart of the Chaco’s Impenetrable revealed the harsh reality: the relentless advance of the bulldozers.
Activists denounce illegal deforestation and documented four clearings in estates near the town of Taco Pozo and in the buffer zones of the Copo National Park and the Loro Hablador Provincial Reserve, placing signs that state: “This is an environmental crime“.
Complicity and impunity: report of illegal deforestation
The data, resulting from a cross between official information and Greenpeace’s satellite monitoring, reveal a precise and devastating figure: 167,684 hectares deforested illegally between November 2020 and July 2025.
“These crimes have the complicity of the government, which must enforce the Judicial rulings,” stated Noemí Cruz, coordinator of the Forest Campaign of Greenpeace Argentina.
“In the absence of effective controls, landowners feel encouraged by impunity and advance daily on our last native forests.
It is very sad to denounce illegal deforestation and see that they continue to destroy the home of endangered species, such as the jaguar, even in strategic areas for the preservation of protected areas“.
The legal battle for the jaguar awaits in the Supreme Court
This ecological disaster is not an isolated incident, but another chapter in a long legal battle. In 2019, Greenpeace filed a protective action before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation.
The lawsuit targets the provinces of Chaco, Santiago del Estero, Formosa, and Salta, as well as the National State, for violating the Native Forest Law and allowing the destruction of the habitat of the fewer than 20 jaguars that, according to scientific estimates, survive in the Grand Chaco of Argentina.
The highest court has already declared its jurisdiction in the case, and the environmentalist community awaits a ruling that could be historic for the protection of biodiversity in the country.
An ecocide with multiple victims
Deforestation goes beyond tree cutting. As Cruz emphasizes, it is an ecocide with devastating and multifaceted consequences:
- Species disappearance.
- Acceleration of climate change.
- Increase in floods and droughts.
- Soil desertification.
- Spread of diseases.
- Eviction of indigenous and farming communities.
- Loss of food sources, medicines, and woods.
“It is urgent to prohibit and penalize deforestation,” demanded the Greenpeace spokesperson.
The call to action: turning the report of illegal deforestation into a criminal offense
This massive deforestation challenges Argentina’s international commitments, such as the Zero Deforestation by 2030 agreement signed at the Glasgow Climate Summit in 2021.
Faced with this critical situation, Greenpeace has issued a call to citizen action through the platform votaporlosbosques.org, urging people to demand that both intentional forest fires and illegal deforestation be classified as criminal offenses in the Penal Code. To date, more than 267,000 people have already added their signature to this cause.
