A special ecosystem

The Gran Chaco is a forest of palm trees, jaguars, cacti, thorns and anteaters; caimans and pumas and precious woods like palo santo. A continuous forest, of dusty and swampy roads, divided by political borders which do not exist for nature and into four ecoregions which, yes, include arid climates, but also forests, wetlands, rivers and lagoons , sometimes dry.

It is a forest of vital importance for the indigenous peoples who inhabit it and, like the Amazon, for the fauna and flora of the whole world, said the biologist and professor at the National University of Asunción, Andrea Weiler at Chinese dialog.

“It is an ecosystem so particular in its biodiversity that it adapts wonderfully to extreme conditions”, explains the researcher, specialized in monitoring the fauna of the Chacolike the jaguar (yaguarete in Guarani, which means “real dog”) and the puma.

The ecological value of the Gran Chaco includes 3,400 species of plants, 500 species of birds, 150 mammals, 120 reptiles and 100 amphibians. Many are threatened, as the JaguarO red-headed peccarythe anteater and the tapir.

“By building these new roads, they bring in a lot more traffic and that will lead to more forest and population fragmentation; and with more urban agglomerations, there will be more conflict,” says Weiler.

It is an ecosystem so particular in its biodiversity that it adapts perfectly to extreme conditions.

With the reduction of the forest and therefore of the prey of the big cats, this attracts them to the cows. Weiler warned that breeders pay their employees between $100 and $200 for each cougar they hunt, and double that if it’s a jaguar, which can result in up to five years in prison in Paraguay. This is an amount equal to or even greater than an average monthly salary in the region.

Neither a desert nor an idyll

The Gran Chaco is not an environmental idyll, nor a land inhabited only by indigenous peoples. On the Argentine side, plantations of transgenic soybeans and cotton were established two decades ago. On the Brazilian side, few farmers own most of the ecosystem. And on the Bolivian and Paraguayan side, thousands of Mennonite settlers of Russian, German, Canadian, and Mexican descent built industries of logging, cattle ranching, milk, soy, and cotton. There are also missionaries.

Two wars have passed through this territory in less than 200 years. First, the Paraguayan War (1864-1870), in which Brazil and Argentina devastated, occupied and divided Paraguay which was an ancestral indigenous territory. Later, the war between Paraguay and Bolivia, in 1932 and 1935, disputed exactly the territory of Chaco and left 60,000 Bolivians dead and 30,000 Paraguayans.

And the indigenous peoples of the region have been besieged, conscripted or imprisoned, and have had their lands continually divided without their consent.

Today, Picanerai is one of the main indigenous political actors in the Chaco. He speaks Ayoreo, Spanish and understands Guarani and Portuguese. On his broad back, he bears the responsibility of negotiating with the Paraguayan state measures to prevent the destruction of the communal lands and forests where his relatives live.