Indigenous Responses to Deforestation: Land Use and Territorial Conflicts in Paraguay

The Gran Chaco, the second largest biome of South America, underwent deep and fast environmental changes a few decades ago. In the Paraguayan Chaco, covering sixty percent of the country, changes are mainly related to the country’s development model: The government has promoted rapid economic growth through large-scale soybean cultivation and livestock farming over the past years. This has led to unsustainable forms of production and environmental destruction. Indigenous peoples are considered to be amongst those most affected by this development, due to their special relationship with and reliance on their lands, territories and natural resources (Tauli-Corpuz 2015).