Área de Conservación e Importancia Ecológica Ñembi Guasu: Mapped Protected Landscapes in Bolivia

Ñembi Guasu was formally established on 30 April 2019 through the Law of Consolidation and Establishment of Boundaries of the Ñembi Guasu Conservation and Ecological Importance Area. The reserve was created under the framework of Charagua Iyambae, the autonomous Indigenous territory of the Guaraní people in the Bolivian Chaco, making it a landmark in Indigenous-led conservation governance in Bolivia.

In 2019, the same year the area was declared, major wildfires in Bolivia affected a large portion of the territory, highlighting both the vulnerability of the dry-forest ecosystem and the importance of the new protection status.

In October 2024, the governor of Santa Cruz held a meeting with the governor of Alto Paraguay, Paraguay, regarding a proposed highway project that would cross Ñembi Guasu. The proposal was firmly rejected by the Ayoreo community and the Central Ayorea Nativa del Oriente Boliviano (Canob), who argued that the road would threaten ancestral territories, voluntary-isolation peoples, and unique biodiversity. Charagua's Guaraní decision-making body also opposed the project. By June 2025, Canob reported that the Santa Cruz departmental legislature was promoting a law to enable the road's construction, and the organization reiterated its rejection due to concerns about fragmentation of the protected area and the involvement of Paraguayan authorities and agribusiness interests.

Ñembi Guasu protects a major block of the Bolivian Chaco ecoregion, widely regarded as one of the largest dry forest ecosystems in the world. The Chaco here combines dry tropical forest, thorn scrub, seasonally inundated wetlands, and open savanna-like formations across its sub-Andean, piedmont, and plain zones, producing a varied mosaic of habitats despite the overall dry-forest character.

This habitat diversity supports a correspondingly rich animal community. The area sustains numerous mammal species, a particularly rich birdlife, and a diverse herpetofauna, all within a continuous landscape that links Ñembi Guasu to the Otuquis and Kaa Iya protected areas and strengthens the resilience of the broader Chaco ecosystem.

The wildlife of Ñembi Guasu reflects its position within the Gran Chaco, one of South America's most ecologically distinctive dry regions. The area is home to a substantial mammal community that includes large predators and other characteristic Chaco species, alongside a notable micromammal presence typical of dry-forest ecosystems.

Among the species documented in the area are the jaguar, the puma, the nocturnal monkey (Aotus azarae), and the lesser anteater (Tamandua tetradactyla). The reserve also supports a rich herpetofauna and around 300 bird species, making it a significant area for both lowland wildlife conservation and regional birdlife. Because Ñembi Guasu adjoins other major Chaco reserves, its fauna effectively moves across a much larger connected landscape.

Ñembi Guasu is one of Bolivia's largest protected areas, covering well over a million hectares of Chaco dry forest and playing a central role in safeguarding one of the world's largest remaining dry tropical forest ecosystems. Its conservation importance extends well beyond its borders: together with Otuquis National Park and the Kaa Iya National Park of the Gran Chaco, it forms a continuous protected corridor through the Chaco ecoregion, helping maintain ecological connectivity for wide-ranging species such as the jaguar.

What sets Ñembi Guasu apart is its governance model. Declared under the autonomous authority of Charagua Iyambae, it is administered within an Indigenous Guaraní territorial framework. This integrates ecological protection with cultural and territorial safeguarding, particularly for the Ayoreo people, including those who still live in voluntary isolation. The area is therefore not only a conservation reserve but also a defensive buffer around ancestral lands, and conservation proposals around infrastructure, such as the contested road project discussed in 2024 and 2025, are evaluated largely in terms of their impact on both ecological integrity and Indigenous rights.

Ñembi Guasu is deeply intertwined with the territorial and cultural identity of the Guaraní people of Charagua Iyambae and the Ayoreo nation. The reserve overlaps with the ancestral homeland of the Ayoreo, a portion of whose population continues to live in voluntary isolation within the Chaco, making the area not only an ecological sanctuary but also a space of profound cultural and human significance.

The Guaraní autonomous government of Charagua Iyambae has exercised direct stewardship over the declaration of the area, embedding Indigenous self-governance into the legal foundation of the reserve. Recent debates over external development projects, particularly the proposed road that would bisect the protected area, have emphasized the role of Ñembi Guasu as a living cultural territory where Indigenous peoples actively defend their land, their legal autonomy, and their way of life.

One of the largest protected areas in Bolivia, covering roughly 12,000 square kilometers in the Bolivian Chaco; an Indigenous-led conservation area under the autonomous Guaraní territory of Charagua Iyambae; a key ecological connector between the Otuquis and Kaa Iya protected areas in a continuous Chaco dry-forest landscape; includes the ancestral territory of the Ayoreo people, including communities in voluntary isolation; protects a transition of sub-Andean, piedmont, and Chaco plain environments rich in mammals, birds, and herpetofauna.

The Chaco has a strongly seasonal climate with a distinct dry season and a wet season that concentrates most of the rainfall. Visiting during or shortly after the wet season tends to offer greener vegetation, more active wildlife, and fuller wetland and lagoon systems, while the dry season brings clearer skies and easier access across the flat landscape, though with hotter temperatures and more forest stress, including elevated wildfire risk as seen in 2019. The most rewarding visits typically align with cooler periods of the dry season or the transition into the wet season, when wildlife viewing and landscape conditions are often most balanced.