Ayoreo Groups in Voluntary Isolation in Paraguay

Situation in June 2005

General Situation and Geographical-Territorial Location

There are still indigenous groups living in voluntary isolation in the North of the Paraguayan Chaco. To date they have not yet had any contact whatsoever with modern civilization and, for the time being, show no desire to leave their life in the forest.

	Hollow in a tree indicating recent honey gathering / southeast of Amotocodie

More than 50 persons (estimative figure), they live separately in several small groups or family groups that apparently do not communicate with each other. They continue to live nomadically hunting, gathering fruit and honey, sometimes fishing and cultivating small crops ‘on the go’ during the rainy season. They constitute an inseparable unit and live communally with their habitat which includes vast extensions of high and low virgin forest, with some palm groves, open fields, dry riverbeds, streams and lagoons.

One of these groups belongs to the traditional local group of the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode, others belong to other, unidentified local groups, yet all belong to the Ayoreo ethnic group.

All the groups without contact move within the confines of the traditional Ayoreo territory. Although no-one has had direct contact with them, their presence has been proven by signs, such as tracks and hollows in trees indicating honey gathering. On occasion they have been seen unexpectedly from a distance.

Signs of their presence have been observed in several locations of the Northern Paraguayan Chaco over recent years. Furthermore, there is recurrent information on signs of their presence in parts of the traditional territory now belonging to Bolivia: it stands to reason that an Ayoreo group without contact crosses the modern political border, which for them is inexistent.

Such signs are found with particular frequency in the area called Amotocodie, within the traditional territory of the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode local group. Today, the latter is divided into two areas: to the West and to the East of the frequently traveled on Tte. Montanía–Madrejón road.

Threats from the Modern World and Reactions from the Forest

Most of the territory currently used by the groups without contact belongs to private owners: Paraguayan and foreign; ranchers and investors; individuals and companies. Less than 10% of the territory is a Park or National Protected Area.

At present some of these owners are the direct protagonists of western encroachment, felling through virgin areas of the hunting and gathering territories of the groups in voluntary isolation to set up cattle ranches. Proposed production plans for their exploitation by private owners have been approved by competent authorities, with no consideration whatsoever for the presence and interests of the bush natives.

Indeed, in recent decades the establishment of the ranches has devastated the territories of the groups in voluntary isolation, separating them from each other with felled strips of land and increasingly traveled-on roads. For the native nomad groups without contact it has become increasingly difficult to walk their long-standing annual migration paths, access areas of the habitat that are vital to their lives and survival, and keep in touch with each other.

In 1998, three attacks on the part of Ayoreo warriors of the groups without contact took place in the Amotocodie area. Experts qualified these attacks as warnings by these groups, as a reaction to incursions into their habitat. Two attacks were on ranches, and third attack was against a giant bulldozer used for opening paths in the virgin forest.

In March 2004, contact was made with one of the groups living in voluntary isolation. Today this group of 17 persons lives out of the forest and sedentarily, in the settlement of Chaidí, located on the southern fringes of the traditional habitat of the Ayoreo- Totobiegosode local group, on an extension of land secured in their name. The mentioned group receives post- contact accompaniment and attention from the NGO G.A.T.

Situations of Extreme Risk

Below is a list of some of the scenarios deeply affecting the remaining forest groups and endangering their lives and their ancestral territory. These threats of annihilation could put an end their existence at any moment in the very short term.

Additional to the aforementioned pressures and threats are:

• the opening of new roads in areas with presence of the bush groups
   
• the so-called bio-oceanic corridors implying an imminent heavy flow of international traffic which will seriously affect and transform vast areas of the Chaco, including the parts inhabited by the Ayoreo in voluntary isolation
   
• State-granted concessions for operations of the subsoil extraction industry in different areas of territories used by the Ayoreo in voluntary isolation
   
• the boom of the exploitation and traffic related to the exportation of precious woods and live animals
   
• the above-mentioned production processes on the part of private owners on the habitat of the Ayoreo in voluntary isolation. The situation is particularly serious in the Eastern area of the Totobiegosode territory with presence of Brazilian companies acting against national legislation on the protection of natural resources.

These facts and threats generate a scenario of acute defenselessness, made worse by lack of protection on the part of the Government of Paraguay, in contravention of stipulations in the National Constitution, as well as ILO Covenant 169, which Paraguay has signed. This powerlessness is further exacerbated because these groups are not able to take on the defense of their own rights before surrounding society and competent State bodies.

(1) In Paraguay they are commonly called “silvícolas” ( “silviculturists”).
(2) The work of NGO Iniciativa Amotocodie includes observation of the movements of the bush natives and systematizing said data on a permanent basis.

Last Update: January 31, 2006