The Paraguayan Chaco covers almost 250,000 km2, about one quarter of the Gran Chaco Americano and includes, in the northwest, the dry open forest and savanna, as well as wet seasonally flooded portions of this ecoregion in the southeast. Expanded investment in ranching in the Paraguayan Chaco, associated with the ban on activities that promote deforestation in the Oriente, has accelerated deforestation and ecosystem degradation.