 |
| Ayoreo-Totobiegosode children at the camp of the New Tribes Mission, an American fundamentalist missionary organisation. © Jonathan Mazower/Survival |
A group of Ayoreo Indians has angrily condemned the landowners who are
logging their territory illegally. Senior government officials have
travelled to the Ayoreo's villages to investigate.
The Ayoreo-Totobiegosode's territory was recently included in the Chaco
Biosphere Reserve in an attempt to protect it from the private
landowners who are determined to log the area of all its valuable
hardwoods.
The forest is protected by injunctions which make any activity on it
illegal, but these injunctions have been repeatedly flouted.
The area is home to an unknown number of uncontacted Ayoreo families,
whose forest home is being encroached upon from all sides. Amongst the
worst offenders is the firm of Carlos Casado S.A., who have refused
government attempts to buy the land from them to transfer to the
Indians.
The Ayoreo have denounced 'the theft of our forest and resources, especially the cutting of palo santo
[a valuable hardwood] for fence posts… Marcelo Peyrat [the
representative of Carlos Casado S.A.] is making himself rich through
the theft of our timber.'
