This investigation, one of the winners of the 2022 GRID-Arendal Investigative Environmental Journalism Grants, is about the Argentine province of Chaco, where the largest forest extension of what was once the Great Chaco Forest is still preserved. However, reports of illegal clearing have been among the highest in recent years. This was the last territory to be colonized by European settlers in Argentina, and went from being a jungle to an extractive zone for timber, tannin, coal, soy and cattle without any planning or environmental awareness. The military dictatorship began to penetrate the forest in 1978, and in the last 12 years, Chaco has lost almost 300,000 hectares of native forest. Actions by activists and conservationists are pushing the provincial government towards more sustainable initiatives such as ecotourism, other forms of livestock farming and payment for environmental services to stop the progress of deforestation that affects one of the most threatened forests in Latin America. Originally published on Mongabay (Spanish) and Dialogo Chino.

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Tags: Investigative Environmental Journalism