Deforestation in Gran Chaco, Argentina, satellite image

Satellite image showing areas of deforestation (brown) in the Argentinian Gran Chaco forest. The area shown is in Argentina's Salta province. The forest, which spans Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia, is the largest dry forest in South America at approximately 650,000 square kilometres. The land is being cleared for soybean fields and pastures for grazing livestock. Between 1985 and 2013 roughly 20 per cent of the forest (142,000 square kilometres) was converted to farmland, followed by a further 29,000 square kilometres from 2010 to 2018. This is a view of the area on the 24th December 2019. For a view of the area in 2000 see C052/6172. Image obtained by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite., Photo by NASA Earth Observatory/NASA EOSDIS LANCE/GIBS/Worldview/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY