It was first declared as Huanchaca Flora and Fauna National Park, by DS 16646 on June 28, 1979. Through Law 978 on March 4, 1988, the name was changed to Noel Kempff Mercado National Park, and by DS 21997 on August 31, 1988 , the surface area of the Park was widened for the first time. DS 24457, on December 23, 1996, decreed the second enlargement of the borders of the Park. It is found in the northwest of the district of Santa Cruz and in the zone that borders with Brazil, extending 1.6 million hectares (3,840,000 acres). The park owes its name to the distinguished Bolivian biologist, Noel Kempff Mercado, who had originally negotiated the creation of the park with the government, but he was tragically killed on September 5, 1986. Therefore, in 1988, Huenchaca National Park officially changed its name and was called Noel Kempff Mercado. Of incomparable beauty and a tremendous variety of flora and fauna species still in tact in their original habitat, the Park is the site where the two most important ecosystems of South America unite: the Amazon forests and the grasslands of the Escudo Prec