Paraguayan full-service firm Vouga Abogados has a longstanding environmental law team which has worked on some of the most complex green projects in the country.

One of the firm’s current key clients is Paracel. Head of the environment practice Rodrigo Fernandez leads the team assisting the company with its state-of-the-art cellulose plant, which constitutes the largest private investment in Paraguay’s history. The team is advising on Paracel’s compliance with the highest green and environmental standards for the plant, which will dually serve as a clean source of energy for the national grid. The matter also includes an ambitious reforestation project of nearly 150,000 hectares of land in the north of the country, and the firm is advising the client before the Ministry of Environment to extend native forest areas to be preserved on its land.

In the sustainable finance space, the firm acted as counsel in Paraguay to J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Santander Investment Securities INC as initial purchasers of Banco Continental’s $300m notes, the first-ever sustainable notes issued by a Paraguayan company. 

Internally, the firm has focused on minimising paper use and waste generation and achieved a reduction of over 70% within one year.