...but securing land tenure for those families that are still on the land but do not have titles and providing legal support to those currently facing investor claims on their land should be the absolute priority for any entity seeking to support the region’s Criollo population.

It is late to alter course, as most of the land in the Paraguayan Chaco has already been appropriated and converted by large-scale actors...

Today, those who are not driven out of livestock herding altogether are forced to fundamentally change their production systems to adapt to an increasingly scarce land base.

These responses are shaping the Chaco landscapes even where the land has not yet been converted to large-scale agriculture by investors. People used to rely on an extensive, forest-based livestock herding system for a living.

Faced with constant pressure on land from outside actors, Criollo smallholders are responding in a variety of ways, including some contestation and resistance but also forms of everyday cooperation, intensification of production, livelihood diversification, and relocation.

Paraguay is experiencing tremendous pressure on land. In the Pilcomayo River basin, in the borderlands of Paraguay with Argentina and Bolivia, small-scale Criollo livestock herders are being squeezed out of their traditional livelihoods by outside investors.

How to be more nuanced about land use in conservation? We identify land systems, focused on actors, that represent key threats and conservation opportunities - across the tropical dry woodlands.