Pantanal, paradise of birds, jaguars, fish protected by Federal Law.

Pantanal
The Pantanal is the world’s largest freshwater wetland. It is almost 10 times the size of the Everglades

The Pantanal is the world’s largest freshwater wetland, a seasonally flooded plain fed by the tributaries of the Paraguay River. At 175,000 square kilometers (68,000 square miles), it is almost 10 times the size of the Everglades.

The Pantanal is also one of the world’s most productive habitats. Annual floods, fed by tropical rains, create a giant nursery for aquatic life, including 260 species of fish. As the waters recede in the dry season, the Pantanal
attracts a great influx of birds and other animals — one of the hemisphere’s greatest natural phenomena.

The Pantanal attracts dense populations of animals that feed and breed along its waterways, including: giant river otters, jaguars, marsh deer, tapirs.

The wetland also provides habitat for more than 650 bird species, including cormorants, egrets, herons, hyacinth macaws, ibis, jabiru storks and roseate spoonbills.

Less than 2 percent of the Pantanal is under federal protection. In the early 1990s, Nature Conservancy scientists conducted an ecological assessment of Pantanal National Park and six adjacent properties, concluding that the park
alone could not protect the Pantanal’s rich biodiversity.

The Conservancy helped partner organization Ecotropica purchase 148,000 acres (60,000 hectares) of critical land on the borders of Pantanal National Park and converted these properties into private preserves.

With support from the Conservancy and the U.S. Department of the Interior, Everglades National Park authorities are providing resources for improving the management of Pantanal National Park and the adjacent private preserves.

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