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| Ayoreo-Totobiegosode children at the camp of the New Tribes Mission, an American fundamentalist missionary organisation. © Jonathan Mazower/Survival |
The fate of the last uncontacted South American tribe outside Amazonia
will be decided this week. Paraguay's Congress will debate a bill which
would protect the heart of their territory.
The Indians are members of the Ayoreo
tribe, some of whom still lead a nomadic life in the dense scrub
forest of western Paraguay, rejecting contact with outsiders. Dramatic
evidence of their existence came one year ago, when a group of
seventeen emerged from the forest and issued a plea to the outside
world to stop destroying their homeland.
Most of the Ayoreo's territory is now in private hands. The core of
their territory is owned by three private companies, two Brazilian and
one Paraguayan. The bill now before Congress would buy the land from
them at a fair price, and return it to the Indians.
The Indians' future if the bill fails is bleak: much of their forest
has already been destroyed for logging and cattle ranching. The
land-owners who now own it have repeatedly defied injunctions meant to
protect the Indians, sending in bulldozers to open tracks into the
forest.
For more information contact Miriam Ross on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or email mr@survival-international.org
Photos of the isolated Indians, and aerial footage of the Indians' territory, showing illegally-bulldozed tracks, are available.
