History
Following the principles of Health, Security, and Environment applied to all the forest projects carried out by the Shell Group, the business Forestal Yguazu S.R.L., as proprietor of the land, performed a preliminary study of the 
natural resources of the Tapyta Ranch, where the development of an ambitious reforestation project had been planned since 1996, setting aside around 6,000 hectares to the millionaire enterprise to produce more than 220,000 m3 of wood annually, principally eucalypti (Eucalyptus grandis and other species). Since then, the presence of important elements of biological diversity has been discovered, motive for which a reserve area was decided upon, in order to protect the native forests and a sample of the natural fields and wetlands. The area was named Tapyta Private Nature Reserve and includes a large variety of natural communities forming a mosaic of forests and savannas that constitute a typical landscape of the Upper Parana Atlantic Forest ecorregion and completes an important role in maintaining biological corridors.
For the Reserve’s conformation, Forestal Yguazu trusted in the widely demonstrated experience of the Moises Bertoni Foundation in management of protected wildlife areas. In a period of several years basic management actions were carried through: control and vigilance, personnel training, scientific research, educational chats, and surveys of the socio-economic environment of the neighboring communities.
The Reserve was officially inaugurated October 17, 1998. In the year 2004, following a change of proprietor, and as part of a vision of cooperative social responsibility, Pomera group donated to the Moises Bertoni Foundation the area set aside for the Nature Reserve of 4,736 hectares. Later, the Presidential Decree Nº 5,831 on June 28, 2005, declared the Private Nature Reserve named Tapyta (RNPT) a Protected Wildlife Area for Perpetuity.
Location and Access
The Tapyta Private Reserve is located in the east of the Department Caazapa, in the district of San Juan Nepomuceno. The property is accessed via the route to Tavai, followed by about 25 km. of all time roads from San Juan.
The reserve comprises an area of approximately 4,736 hectares. It has about 3,350 hectares of native forest and 735 of high and flood savannas. The zones of Eucalyptus cultivation comprise the productive areas and do not form part of the Reserve.
Characteristics of the area
Three characteristics give the Reserve a special singularity:
- The formation of a biological corridor between two important protected areas:
the national parks Caazapá and San Rafael. The “biological corridors” are natural or modified spaces that permit the exchange of flora and fauna between one area and another.
- The confluence of two basic units of landscape: the Upper Parana Atlantic Forest and natural pastures corresponding to the fields of Mesopotamia.
- The presence of important species of wildlife, especially birds, due to its proximity to the Reserve area of the San Rafael National Park, recognized as the first “Important Area for Bird Conservation” identified in Paraguay.
We must add to this the perfect conjugation of conservation and production (cultivation area), since cultivation takes place in the high parts of the savannas.
