Alto Paraguay contains many natural resources, so is home to several national parks, each with different characteristics.

The Defensores del Chaco National Park is the largest in the Paraguayan territory and holds the hill Cerro León, the highest point in northern Paraguay.

Parque Nacional Río Negro is an area with several small lakes and most of the department's fauna.

[2] The department's most important activity is cattle ranching, extensive in the savannas of the east and intensive on the planted pastures of cleared land.

Cultivation of sorghum, sugar cane and (in planning stage as of January 2009, for the arid west) jatropha are very recent developments.