“Paraguay’s Indians see 14 million trees cut down in one month 4 February 2016”

A new report has revealed that 14 million trees were cut down in just one month in the Paraguayan Chaco…The Chaco is home to Paraguay’s most vulnerable tribe, the Ayoreo, and is the largest South American forest outside the Amazon. Scientists have called it one of the most biodiverse places on earth. The report by Guyra, a Paraguayan environmental organization, shows that 28,000 hectares were cut down in October. The Chaco is currently facing the fastest rate of deforestation in the world...Part of this land belongs to the Ayoreo, who have been forced out of their forest home by cattle ranchers. Cattle firms Yaguareté Porã SA and Spanish-owned Carlos Casado SA [parte de Grupo Sanjose] have already destroyed large swathes of the Indians’ ancestral forest. [Grupo Sanjose had responded to these allegations in 2013 to the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre; the response is found here]