Environment

The months August and September 2024 have seen a series of wildfires strike countries across South America at an unprecedented scale. These wildfires are primarily the result of the combined effects of a severe drought brought on by man-made climate change as-well as predatory “slash-and-burn” agriculture techniques. In Brazil alone, the fires have so far destroyed portions of rainforest equivalent to an area larger than Costa Rica.[LRW1] 

“Slash and burn” is a traditional farming method in which a clearing is created by cutting down and then setting fire to vegetation to make space for the cultivation of crops. The environmental cost of these activities is damning, with the leader of the community-led reforestation organisation “Accion Andina” labelling the recent wildfires as a byproduct of this technique (The Guardian). Moreover, NPR reports that fires are being deliberately set by criminal-interests, in order to make way for cattle-ranching and the cultivation of crops such as coca, a plant used to make cocaine.

However, while national governments in South America have rightly “declared war” on these criminal activities, they have simultaneously allowed the social disaster stemming from these activities to fly under the radar (The Guardian). The Ayoreo are the last isolated Indigenous people outside of the Amazon and have seen swathes of their land within the Gran Chaco be destroyed by the recent wildfires. According to analysis by Iniciativa Amotocodie, a Paraguayan conservation organisation, the fires have been particularly devastating due to the nomadic practices of the Ayoreo, whose area for hunting and foraging was reduced by 14,200 hectares in September alone.

Consequently, the fires have been a devastating blow to the internationally protected rights of the Ayoreo, whose choice to voluntarily isolate in their own communities is being irreparably eroded by the destruction of their homeland. Earthsight reports that the greatest threat to the Chaco and its people is deliberate deforestation by cattle-ranching interests, who are taking advantage of the recent wildfires to swallow up land from the Indigenous Ayoreo population while the Paraguayan government turns a blind eye.

The wildfires and the seizing of deforested land are the latest in a long series of encroachments on the Ayoreo’s human rights in previous years. In 2021 the Paraguayan government chose to move forward with a massive infrastructure project, the “Bioceanic Corridor”. This would see a 340-mile highway cross directly through the Chaco, in hopes of connecting agricultural interests with trade links in Brazil and Argentina. Its construction brought environmental and cultural devastation with it, and by January 2022, traffic accidents and drownings directly attributed to the highway’s construction had already cost several indigenous people their lives. Miguel Lovera, director of Iniciatava Amotocodie, has called the highway the “final nail in the coffin for the Chaco and all of its people”.[LRW2] 

Consequently, this pre-existing plan to encroach upon the land of the Ayoreo people gives us insight into the apathetic attitude of the Paraguayan government toward the fresh damage brought on by the wildfires and illegal deforestation, as they are set to make significant financial gain through the destruction of the Chaco.

To conclude, it is imperative that more pressure be placed upon the governments of South America, and particularly the administration of President Santiago Peña of Paraguay, to clamp down on the illegal deforestation and fire-setting currently occurring in the Chaco at the hands of cattle-ranchers, drug-farmers, and other climate criminals. It is crucial that pressure be applied on the governments of South America to reconsider the construction of the Bioceanic Corridor and its humanitarian impact.

If action is not taken soon, it is not without cause to say that the future of the Ayoreo Indigenous people is bleak at best and short at worst. As one Ayoreo put it:

“Today there are endless threats, it’s difficult for us to imagine a future, with the destruction of our territory”.

Editor: Leah Russon Watkins