Gran Chaco

The Gran Chaco is a natural region with more than one million km² spread across the territories of four countries: Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil. This Action will mainly focus on the first three countries. The region presents great environmental diversity and a variety of available resources, with the second biggest biodiversity and forest areas of the continent, just after the Amazon rainforest.

Although comprising four different countries, the region has its own identity and has historically been the object of internal or beyond borders migration and has an indigenous population that circulates within the territory in search of economic opportunities.

In recent years, environmental degradation, caused by climate change, natural disasters and man-made factors, has driven the migratory phenomenon even more in the region. The main environmental and climate threats facing the region are deforestation, air and water pollution, floods, droughts, forest fires, landslides, erosion, desertification and changes in soil usage.

It is in this context that 10 partners, including subnational governments, civil society organisations, regional organisations and academia, requested the support from MIEUX+ to address environmental migration in the region as a common challenge. 

This project will pay a special attention to rural and indigenous communities who are, generally, the poorest and most vulnerable populations.

The aim of this Action is to:

• analyse the interactions between human mobility and environmental factors in selected locations
• promote the exchange of knowledge and raise awareness of the issue among stakeholders
• provide recommendations and guidelines for public policies in this field