Paraguay River

"The Paraguay River originates in the vast Cerrado savanna and feeds the Pantanal, a gargantuan wetland that sprawls from Brazil into Bolivia and Paraguay. From April to September—the region’s rainy season—the wetland’s headwaters discharge 47 million gallons of water per day. That water supports more than 4,000 plant and animal species, along with ranchers, local communities, and cities. But expanding agricultural production, unsustainable ranching, and poor infrastructure planning are threatening this critical ecosystem." The Paraguay-Paraná Hidrovia, a proposed engineering project to dredge and straighten the Paraguay River into an industrial shipping channel, has been negoiated over the past decade. The implications of such development would devastate the biodiverse Pantanal region. In 2022, small steps were made towards the project with Brazilian approval to construct two small ports on the river.