Paraguay, Geography

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Paraguay, Geography

Paraguay is a landlocked country located in the heart of South America and is traversed by the Tropic of Capricorn. It is bounded by Brazil to the north and east, Argentina to the south, and Bolivia to the west. With an area of 157,006 square miles (406,752 sq. km.), it is the third smallest of the Latin republics of South America, after Uruguay and Ecuador. Four-fifths of the country's perimeter is traced by the Paraguay, Apa, Paraná, and Pilcomayo rivers. The Paraná forms both the eastern and southern borders of the country. Multiple tributaries of the Paraguay and Paraná cross the eastern and central regions. The Paraná joins the Paraguay River at the country's southwestern corner. The only important tributary flowing from the west is the sluggish Pilcomayo, which joins the Paraguay near Asunción. Rising to the northwest in Bolivia, the Pilcomayo forms the southern border of the Chaco Boreal region and is navigable in its lower reaches by small boats.

The Paraguay River, which runs from north to south, effectively splits the country into two distinct geographic regions. To the west is the Chaco Boreal region, which accounts for 61 percent (or 95,313 square miles) of the total area and is inhabited by only 2.7 percent of the total population. The Chaco is a tract of flat and infertile scrub forest. Along the river banks there are grassy plains and clumps of palms, but the land becomes drier toward the west and is almost desert in the northwest. The Chaco can be divided into three zones: the Low Chaco, with open palm forest and marshes used for extensive cattle ranching; the Middle Chaco scrubland, with a mix of hardwood and cactus; and the High Chaco, with low thorn forest cover and very hot summer temperatures.

In contrast, the Región Oriental to the east of the Paraguay River is fertile, with humid semitropical conditions. With an area of 61,693 square miles, it is an extension of the Brazilian Plateau and varies in elevation from about 165 feet above sea level in the southwest to a few hills that rise to 2,500 feet in the east. The hill ranges of Amambay and Mbaracayú form the watershed between the Paraguay and the Paraná rivers. The highest peak is Mount San Rafael at 2,789 feet, in the Cordillera de San Rafael in southeastern Paraguay. To the east of these hills lies the Paraná River valley. To the west lies the broad valley of the Paraguay River. The area from Encarnación northward to the Brazilian border, comprising one-third of eastern Paraguay, is called the Paraná Plateau and hosts rapidly expanding soybean production.

There has been a swift decline in the forest cover in eastern Paraguay, from 52 percent of the total area in 1950 to 6 percent in 2000. Cleared land is used for cattle ranching and commercial agriculture. Around 4 percent of the national territory is protected as national park land, but enforcement is weak. Paraguay has only two lakes of consequence. The largest, Lake Ypoá, about 40 miles south of Asunción, is drained by channels of the Tebicuary and feeds the marshes of the Ñeembucú plain. The picturesque Lake Ypacaraí, about 30 miles east of Asunción, with summer resorts at San Bernardino and Aregúa, has become extremely polluted in recent years.

Paraguay is less urbanized than most Latin American countries. The proportion of the population living in towns rose slowly in the 1990s, reaching 57 percent by the 2002 census. The largest city is the capital, Asunción (population 700,000). Ciudad del Este (formerly Puerto Presidente Stroessner, populataion 250,000) on the eastern border grew rapidly from the 1970s. Other towns are Concepción, Encarnación, Pedro Juan Caballero, Coronel Oviedo, and Villarrica. Brazilians have settled in the Paraná Plateua region in large numbers since the 1970s. There are twenty German-speaking Mennonite colonies in Paraguay, both in the Chaco and the eastern region, with a combined population of 25,000.

Paraguay has a highly centralized form of government. The 1992 constitution introduced seventeen departments as a new intermediate tier of government. Departmental councils and governors are directly elected, but their powers, responsibilities, and financing are still limited. The constitution also guarantees autonomy for the country's 231 municipal districts, but local government responsibilities and finances remain limited.

See alsoParaguay River; Paraná River.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bertoni, Guillermo Tell, and J. Richard Gorham. "The Geography of Paraguay." In Paraguay: Ecological Essays, edited by John Richard Gorham. Miami, FL: Academy of the Arts and Sciences of the Americas, 1973.

Palmieri, Juan H., and Juan C. Velásquez. Geología del Paraguay. Asunción, Paraguay: Ediciones NAPA, 1982.

Quiroga, Omar, ed. Geografía ilustrada del Paraguay, 3rd edition. Buenos Aires: Distribuidora Quevedo de Ediciones, 1998.

Smith, Timothy G. "The Physical Geography of Paraguay." In The Economy of Paraguay, edited by Joseph Pincus. New York: Praeger, 1968.

                                         Andrew Nickson