Bañados del Este Biosphere Reserve, Biosphere reserve in eastern Uruguay

Bañados del Este is a large conservation area in southeastern Uruguay featuring wetlands, lagoons, and coastal zones across multiple departments. The landscape includes hills and open areas that support diverse habitats for wildlife and plants.

The reserve was recognised by UNESCO in June 1976 under the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme, originally covering 200,000 hectares confined to the Rocha department. In 1997 it was greatly enlarged on the basis of the hydrographic basin concept, reaching about 3,850,000 hectares across Treinta y Tres, Rocha and parts of Cerro Largo, Lavalleja and Maldonado. A new delimitation approved in 2004 reduced the area to 1,250,000 hectares, with roughly 70,000 inhabitants, and dropped Lavalleja.

The area has long supported livestock farming and fishing communities that rely on traditional methods in the lagoons and wetlands. These ways of living continue to shape how people use and care for the landscape today.

Annual rainfall ranges from 1123 to 1293 mm with no marked wet season, and the mean temperature is 16 °C. Ocean proximity keeps daily and yearly temperature swings moderate. Roads through the wetlands and low plains can flood seasonally, so check conditions before setting out.

This reserve holds the world's largest concentration of Butia palm trees, a rare species that blankets vast areas of the landscape. These palms shape the look of the terrain and represent a botanical rarity found nowhere else in such abundance.