paraguay: life as commerce? mbaracayú:
land of the aché miguel lovera,
coordinator, global forest coalition
The Aché
people have lived in Paraguay’s subtropical
forests for centuries, surviving several
violent intrusions into their territories,
even the Bandeirantes, or manhunters of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and
the Jesuit missionaries and their infamous
“reductions”. The Aché were perfectly
adapted to the forest and as long as it
survived, so did they.
Since 1945, however, more than 8 million
hectares of subtropical humid forests have
been cleared in eastern Paraguay – the core
of the Aché’s ancestral territory – to make
way for cattle ranches and mechanized
agriculture. Aché communities that survived
467 years of exploitation and colonization
were suddenly devastated. Today, the last
of the Aché communities are now threatened,
ironically, by a nature conservation
organization.
In 1988, a soon-to-go-bankrupt plywood
mill wrapped up operations in the Mbaracayú
Forest Nature Reserve area, home to the
last of the Aché communities. The main
creditor of the botched company was the
World Bank’s International Financial
Corporation (IFC), which took the property
as collateral and then sold it to the
US-based The Nature Conservancy (TNC) for
$2 million.
To protect this last tract of
closed-canopy forest, the powerful
conservation organization created the
Mbaracayú Forest Nature Reserve. In the
process, it shoved the Aché off to the side
in settlements and gave them only limited
rights to the land. There, the Aché have
been exposed to aggressive evangelization
and live as foreigners and paupers next to
the land that sustained them for centuries.
Meanwhile, the nature conservation
organizations behind the reserve grow
richer from both corporate and public
grants.
the role of international
financial institutions
From the outset, the World Bank’s IFC
worked hand in hand with TNC, putting the
rights of the Aché second to land
conservation. It devalued the land from $7
million to a more affordable $2 million,
responding most likely to TNC’s lobbying of
World Bank directors and the intervention
of high-ranking US officials. In 2002, the
Global Environment Facility (GEF) granted
$998 513 for biodiversity conservation to
Fundación Moises Bertoni (FMB), the private
foundation running the reserve that was set
up with support from TNC. The Inter
American Development Bank contributed
around $580 000 to develop an
agro-industrial complex in the area,
designed to purchase and process regional
produce at prices convenient for the
producers.
Aché leaders, who prefer to remain
anonymous, say they don’t know exactly how
much money has been raised, but it’s
obvious that investments in Aché
settlements are meagre at best, not even a
fraction of what has been raised for park
management.
corporations, TNC score on
carbon deals - aché lose
One of the main threats to the world’s
forests is climate change. It comes as no
surprise then that two of the largest
corporate donors to Mbaracayú Forest Nature
Reserve are egregious emitters of
greenhouse gases in search of an image
boost: British Petroleum (BP) and AES
Corporation, a US electricity generation
and distribution giant.
AES Corporation’s “Mbaracayú
Conservation Project”was designed to offset
carbon dioxide emissions from their Hawaii
plant, a 180- megawatt coal-fired
cogeneration plant on the island of Oahu.
Under climate agreements, corporations can
offset, or “sequester”, their carbon
emissions by planting trees elsewhere. When
TNC approached AES with its “emissions
credits for protected forests” idea, AES
was quick to sign on, despite the fact that
the issue of the Aché’s rights remained
unresolved. The project was too attractive
as a less costly, image-boosting
alternative to US clean air regulations.
The company planted fruit trees and
cash-producing indigenous trees, paid $500
000 to IFC in 1991 to help purchase the
reserve, and further contributed $1.5
million to the reserve’s trust fund.
Meanwhile, oil giant BP contributed to a
joint research project between FMB and
Cambridge University on a cerrado site of
exceptional global importance within the
reserve. When questioned about taking money
from these corporations, FMB’s officials
responded that all contributions are
welcome, even if they come from sources
whose daily activities destroy forests
around the world. The Aché have a different
perspective: they see millions of dollars
being raised to help plants and animals,
but little to help them – the people who
have lived sustainably for centuries on
this land and who call it home.
biological richness and
biopiracy
The Mbaracayú Forest Nature Reserve is a
prime example of a minimally altered
primary forest and home to approximately 48
percent of all mammal species and 63
percent of all bird species found in
eastern Paraguay. The reserve’s pristine
status means the area is also fertile
ground for biopiracy, the exploitation of
species of potential commercial value.
Currently, FMB is tapping the Aché’s
traditional knowledge of the area,
employing Aché men in research activities.
The Aché are asked to help inventory the
fauna and flora, but are given no control
over the information they share nor its
flow through academic, research, and
commercial circles. To little avail,
Indigenous Peoples’ organizations and
support groups constantly raise questions
about this practice’s equity and
fairness.
environmental
impacts
Given the shameless destruction of
Paraguay’s forests, the Mbaracayú Forest
Nature Reserve is widely considered a
successful conservation endeavour.
Ironically, however, its success is also
its failure. According to FMB itself, the
reserve and its buffer zone are quickly
becoming an “island of trees in a sea of
deforestation”. FMB’s own research shows
that the reserve is not enough to maintain
the population viability of keystone
species such as the harpy eagle. And as the
surrounding forests disappear, the Aché
also may need to become over-dependent on
this last forest remnant, using it not only
for hunting and gathering purposes, but for
the full development of their traditional
lifestyle. In other words, creating islands
of pristine environment is not a real
solution to either protecting the
environment or the traditional lifestyle of
Indigenous Peoples. Only sustainable forest
management, based on the unity the Aché
achieved with the forest for centuries, can
protect the forests for today and future
generations.
Investments in the reserve and local
infrastructure – health, schools, land
purchases, etc – have surpassed $15
million, according to FMB’s reports. From a
conventional point of view of development,
the investments are welcome. But not for
the Aché. Missionaries and conservation
interests have made decisions for them,
forcing the Aché to accept a sedentary and
marginalized life at the doorstep of what
rightfully belongs to them. Many Aché claim
they are now trapped between the expansion
of agriculture and the static
conservationist position: the Aché must now
abandon their traditional ways, become
farmers, and accept a modern lifestyle with
no option of return.
more information
Full case study to be published in the
publication ‘Life as Commerce’ by the
Global Forest Coalition and CENSAT Agua
Viva / Friends of the Earth Colombia.
Downloadable from:
www.wrm.org.uy/GFC/
