Satellite Photos Capture Illegal Clearing of Tribal Forest

Recent satellite images reveal that logging companies have illegally cleared sections of forest inhabited by the last “uncontacted” tribe in South America outside the Amazon, according to the advocacy group Survival International. Between October and December of 2010, loggers cleared forest in Gran Chaco, an arid area of scrub forest in Paraguay claimed by the indigenous Ayoreo, a tribe that had no contact with outsiders until the mid-20th century. The deforestation, which Survival International said was being carried out by the companies River Plate and BBC S.A., violates a logging moratorium in the region that is claimed by the tribe and ranchers. Between 2006 and 2010, commercial ranchers cleared about 10 percent of the Paraguayan Chaco’s forest. “It simply adds to the massive deforestation going on in the Chaco that is, bit by bit, removing the very life source of the Ayoreo,” said Rebecca Spooner of Survival International. Two years ago, the advocacy group used satellite photos to show that a Brazilian company was operating on the tribe’s land despite a suspension of its license by the Paraguayan government.