EcoHearth: Come Home to the Earth

Congratulations, Yaguarete Pora S.A., you’ve worked hard to earn this year’s Survival International Greenwashing Award. Bulldozing thousands of hectares of tribal forest is bad enough, for both the environment and the Indians living there, but then pretending you’re creating a ‘nature reserve’ on land you intend to use for cattle ranching just confirms it.

The fact that the Brazilian company Yaguarete owns 78,549 hectares of Paraguayan forest doesn’t give them the right to destroy the homes of the uncontacted Ayoreo-Totobiegosode tribe who live there. The company knew it looked bad when satellite photos revealed that thousands of hectares of the forest had been destroyed by it. So, as a cover, Yaguarete issued a press release announcing its plan to create a “nature reserve” on the land. In reality, this reserve will cover just one-third of the land; two thirds is slated to be used for grazing beef cattle.

Luckily there are organizations campaigning for the Indians’ cause, such as Survival, the world’s only international organization supporting tribal peoples across the globe, who issued the hypothetical Greenwashing Award. Survival’s director, Stephen Corry, explains how such companies try to pull the wool over people’s eyes:

“This is textbook greenwashing: bulldoze the forest and then ‘preserve’ a bit of it for PR purposes. The public won’t fall for it. Yaguarete should stop playing games and pull out of the Totobiegosode’s territory once and for all.”

The problem is that there is a debate over whether the land still belongs to the Ayoreo, which is how Yaguarete claimed the destruction of such land wasn’t illegal. Under Paraguayan law and the country’s constitution, the Indians have rightful ownership of their traditional lands, but invasions in 1979, 1986, 1998 and 2004 put the land in control of white farmers, who have illegally bulldozed areas of the forest ever since.

Cutting down trees to create land for grazing cattle is a triple blow to the environment, as trees release CO₂ into the atmosphere when they are felled, cows give off methane and the Indians—who have thousands of years of expertise in caring for the environment—have to move away.

An unknown number of Indians remain in the forest, but understandably do not wish to be contacted by white people. Relatives living elsewhere have formed the Payipie Ichadie Totobiegosode Organization (OPIT) to speak on the Indians’ behalf. OPIT has written to Paraguay’s environment minister explaining why it would be illegal to build a “reserve” on their relatives’ land, and how the Indians were best suited to serve as environmental stewards:

“We are the ones who ensure the conservation of the forests on our land in accordance with the way we have always managed them. We are the ones who live in the forest and we are the ones who look after it.”

The Indians’ plight has been heard worldwide, as protestors gathered outside Paraguayan embassies in London, Madrid and Paris on January 26 to voice their case. If you want to help save Paraguay’s forest from being bulldozed and return it to the rightful owners who truly care for it, here are some ideas:

• Write to the Paraguayan parliament
• Write to your local Paraguayan high commission or embassy
• Write to your MP or MEP (UK) or senators and members of Congress (US)
• Donate to Survival

Additional resources:
Survival’s information on the Ayoreo