Evaluation of the Paraguayan System of Protected Areas After 24 Years of Its Implementation/Una evaluación de los 24 años de implementación del Sistema Nacional de Áreas Protegidas del Paraguay

The National System of Wild Protected Areas of Paraguay (SINASIP) was created by Law No. 352 in 1994 to reorganize the country's protected areas. Since 1954, a total of 102 protected areas have been created. The category with the greatest quantity of these areas is "nature reserve," which quadruples the number of national parks and natural monuments. The measurement of SINASIP's success was initially presented in a simplistic way, based on periods of surface expansion, including the objectionable biosphere reserves. This study evaluated the SINASIP in relation to the national coverage, the management categories, and the simple analysis of the implementation level. The legal bodies of creation, modification, or derogation of each protected area were analyzed. The patterns found in relation to the increase or decrease in the surface area of the system and its causes were discussed, and strong deficiencies were found in the creation process. The decrease in terms of the systems surface area is associated with a lack of adequate management, political causes, and land claims. A tendency to change areas from strict conservation categories to less restrictive ones was revealed, involving some 420 326 hectares. The average level of implementation in terms of the five criteria does not reach 50 %. There are at least 13 wild protected areas and two categories without implementation; a further five other categories have less than 30% of implementation. Urgent attention and adequate administration are required, especially in terms of restructuring and implementing successful models with multisectoral and participatory management.