After rejecting national-interest status for Médanos del Chaco protection, lawmakers call a technical meeting

Paraguayan lawmaker José Rodríguez has called a “technical meeting” to discuss a bill that would open Médanos del Chaco National Park to hydrocarbon exploration, prospecting and extraction. The meeting is scheduled for Sept. 9 at the Chamber of Deputies.

Rodríguez, a member of the Colorado Party’s Honor Colorado faction, invited fellow lawmakers, representatives of the Environment and Sustainable Development Ministry, and officials from the Ministry of Public Works and Communications’ mining and energy vice ministry. The Environment Ministry has already issued an opinion opposing the bill.

The proposal seeks to amend Law No. 5723/2016, which designates Médanos del Chaco as a publicly owned protected wild area. The park forms part of international treaties signed by Paraguay. Rodríguez also opposed a separate declaration proposed by fellow Colorado Party lawmaker Mauricio Espínola that would classify the park’s protection and conservation as a matter of national interest.

Espínola warned that the park contains the Yrendá aquifer and ancestral lands, arguing that contamination or destruction would damage the ecosystem and threaten future generations. Rodríguez sought to reject the declaration, which would have reaffirmed existing legal protections, but the session lost its quorum before lawmakers completed the vote.

The Environment Ministry, Paraguay’s Ombudsman’s Office, the Supreme Court and civil society organizations have opposed changing the park’s protected status. Médanos del Chaco extends across parts of the Boquerón and Alto Paraguay departments. Rodríguez has essentially revived a similar proposal that lawmakers rejected in June 2023.

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If we contaminate the aquifer or eliminate ancestral lands, we destroy an ecosystem.