NGO sues to save forest for Paraguay natives

France 24: An NGO supporting the rights of native Paraguayans said Monday that it filed complaints with environmental authorities over the destruction of forests in the northwestern Chaco region. The Support Group for the Totobiegosode (GAT) says that 3,600 hectares (8,900 acres) of virgin forest in land where Paraguay's Ayoreos-Totobiegosode Indians live has been destroyed.

"It is the last redoubt of the Ayoreos-Totobiegosode indians in Paraguay," said Jorge Vera, a member of the non-governmental organization that filed the suit. Vera said the complaint was filed at the office of the environmental prosecutor and the Secretariat of the Environment.

Vera alleged that two Brazilian firms, River Plate and BBC S.A., are responsible for the destruction, and said that indigenous groups, local residents and foreigners made the government offices aware of the forest destruction, in part based on satellite photographs….

A map of areas of the Paraguay Chaco, where hints of presence of small bands of uncontacted Ayoreo Indians were found, as of 2009, indicated in red. Image by Union of Native Ayoreos of Paraguay (UNAP), Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license