El Impenetrable Project

El Impenetrable National Park was created thanks to the efforts of the Chaco government and the National Parks Administration (NPA) as well as multiple Argentine conservation organizations to protect the lands of the former Estancia La Fidelidad, which encompassed areas in the provinces of Chaco and Formosa. Rewilding Argentina has been there from the start, in charge of logistics and presence on the ground since 2012, developing wildlife surveys, as well as training, promotion, and public relations work with donors and the press.

La Fidelidad dates back to 1872, when the ranch was gifted to Natalio Roldan by the then governing government of Salta, in recognition for navigating and exploring the Teuco River. The land was later sold to the Born family which used it to raise cattle, followed by the Roseo brothers who did the same, but with less success. That later led to them logging the land (especially the carob trees) for industrial use in Castelli.

In 2011, the last ranch owner, Manuel Roseo passed away, and various organizations and the NPA proposed creating a national park, helped along with administrative advances by the Province of Chaco. The Province of Formosa is aware of the importance of preserving the area, but has not yet put in place mechanisms to effectively protect it. 

In 2014, El Impenetrable National Park was created though the NPA did not take possession of the area until 2017. To ensure a representative sample of the ecosystem and sustainable populations of large mammals, the northern bank of the Teuco River still needs to be protected.

The park is located at the edge of an area known as El Impenetrable, due to its dense, spiky vegetation but mainly for the lack of water, which makes exploring it difficult. It is the largest national park in northern Argentina making it key to sustain long-term populations of mammals such as the jaguar, tapir, peccary, and giant anteater. It is also tremendously biodiverse and has an excellent state of conservation.

El Impenetrable is home to hundreds of bird species, such as the Chaco eagle, the jabiru (a type of stork), the turquoise-fronted Amazon (a type of parrot), the black-bodied woodpecker, the Chaco chachalaca, the black skimmer, and the Rufous-fronted thornbird, among others. It also has unparalleled riches in plantlife with species such as red quebracho, carob trees, schinus molle, lignum vitae, guaranina, floss silk tree, caspi zapallo trees, mistol, white carob, prosopis kuntzei, porotillo, and a type of acacia. The park also is home to a large palo santo (Bulnesia sarmientoi) forest, a species endemic to the Dry Chaco and known for the quality of its wood. 

The presence of many different types of environments within the park is the key to its great biodiversity. It has tall thickets of red quebrachos, carob tree stands, riverside gallery forests, palm trees, cardon cacti, grasslands, and even one of the last remaining wetlands of the region. The Teuco River, with its periodic flooding and permanent watercourses, plays a fundamental role in the preservation of the many environments and wildlife dispersal during the dry season.

For all of the foregoing reasons, El Impenetrable National Park is unique and of vital importance for the conservation of the Chaco forest.

The La Fidelidad ranch in the Province of Formosa is not currently protected, and is being divided for forestry and cattle raising. The one hundred kilometers of the Teuco River are the northern limit of the national park and are frequently used for illegal hunting and fishing, which endangers peccaries, tapirs, gray brockets (a type of deer), dorados, and catfish. It also threatens large felines, such as the jaguar, which is critically endangered in Chaco and declared a natural monument at the provincial and national level.

Since 2011 we have been working with provincial and national park rangers, seeking environmental compliance, with NGOs and investigators to increase scientific knowledge of wildlife, and with the Chaco government to increase promotion of nature-based tourism in the region.

The Chaco Province and especially El Impenetrable National Park in the Dry Chaco are a rare example of well-conserved red quebracho, palo santo, and carob tree forests, populated by wildlife dependent on them.

However, in recent decades, the populations of some of these forest species—including the jaguar—have been alarmingly reduced, to the point of near disappearance. In the wetlands and grasslands of the Dry Chaco several large species have disappeared. The guanaco and pampas deer are absent from grasslands, and in the Teuco and Tequito Rivers marshlands the marsh deer and giant river otter and other species, such as the lesser rhea, are seldom seen. In the forests, species such as the red-footed tortoise have become locally extinct and others such as the Chacoan peccary and the giant armadillo are at risk of extinction.

Our goal is to return El Impenetrable to its former wildlife splendor by reintroducing locally extinct species and actively managing some of its more threatened environments, such as grasslands. Undertaking this will help the region to recover its iconic inhabitants and environmental roles they fulfill.

Part of Rewilding Argentina’s team lives at the El Teuco Field Station, doing research, monitoring, and training, among other projects aimed at expanding the park. Since mid-2018 we have been developing the biodiversity baseline in El Impenetrable, which to date is the most complete inventory of the flora and fauna species of this protected area. Establishing baselines is essential to making decisions affecting park management.

Our foundation works inside of the national park in collaboration with the NPA to establish biodiversity baselines. 

By 2022 we counted 24 species of mushrooms, 508 species of plants, 624 species of arthropods, 74 species of fish, 36 species of amphibians, 51 of reptiles, 349 of birds, and 57 of mammals. Some of these species were not previously known in the Chaco Province. 

These baseline findings allow us to identify recently disappeared species and determine what caused their extinction. The park contains habitats of sufficient quality and area to bring back locally extinct or nearly extinct species, such as the jaguar, the pampas deer, the guanaco, the marsh deer, the giant river otter, and the red-footed tortoise, some of which are in danger of extinction in Argentina.

Due to its past as a cattle ranch, most of the damage in El Impenetrable affected grasslands. Poor cattle management and inappropriate use of fire have led hardier invasive plants to thrive, impacting vital ecosystems to the survival of the lesser rhea and the maned wolf. Some of the original inhabitants, such as the guanaco, pampas deer, and marsh deer have completely disappeared at a local level.

Caños are dry grasslands of sandy soil formed by the change in a river’s course. They are extremely important for native wildlife but suffer from the encroachment of tusca, a small perennial thorny tree that invades the grasslands, and affects the wildlife that depends on them. 

We have begun a project that consists of mulching and using season and condition-informed prescribed burns, to help the grasses recover. We hope that the original vegetation and the associated native wildlife will repopulate the caños.

El Impenetrable National Park gives visitors the opportunity to observe legendary animals such as the tapir, giant anteater, giant armadillo, puma, and more than 340 species of birds, to hear the immensity of the forest, visit its horseshoe lakes, and take excursions on the majestic Teuco River.

Since 2013, when we set up on the banks of this river within El Impenetrable, together with the NPA, we have been training local people to provide tourism services to visitors. 

In addition, the Chaco Tourism Institute is working with the National Tourism Secretary to create the El Impenetrable tourism corridor, including building an interpretation center in Miraflores, two shelters with lodging and food services in La Armonía and Nueva Población Gateways, and rest areas in between with bathrooms and tourist information centers.

More information on nature tourism at www.elimpenetrable.org

Entrepreneurs by Nature is a Rewilding Argentina project that aims to increase well-being in the local rural communities bordering protected areas, helping entrepreneurs to develop products and services that promote the protection of wildlife and natural ecosystems.

The program supports development of productive practices and tourist services, creates a link between producers and clients, supports entrepreneurs to achieve commercial independence, and promotes economic development at the community level, linking income opportunities with the adoption of conservation practices.

By committing to the Entrepreneurs by Nature certification, entrepreneurs generate new income while becoming stewards of their natural environment, which complements the parks’ mission to sustain wildlife, natural processes, scenic beauty, and cultural wealth.

Learn more about this program by visiting the website: www.emprendedorespornaturaleza.org

We support entrepreneurs’ families, focusing specifically on women and youth to improve their well-being through training, cultural interchanges with other nature-based tourism locations, programs on food safety, and improvements to infrastructure, accessibility, and connectivity. 

At the same time, we seek to educate local communities—especially children and youth—about the biodiversity loss crisis and rewilding by visiting the reintroduction projects underway at El Impenetrable and giving specialized talks about them.