Stop the destruction of the Ayoreo Indians' homeland and UNESCO Biosphere Reserve

Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes has has recently given Brazilian cattle ranching company Yaguarete Porá S.A. permission to move ahead with bulldozing a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve that is home to the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode people, one of the last un-contacted indigenous groups on the planet. Due to their isolation, the Ayoreo people have almost no immunity to modern diseases. The clearing of their land would not only deprive them of access to food and water and shelter it would put them at severe risk of dying from diseases like tuberculosis.

In addition to threatening the lives of the Ayoreo people, clearing the rainforest for cattle grazing would also release large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, reduce the biodiversity of the region and further compromise the health of the rainforest ecosystem, which is vital to our planet's health.

Members of the Ayoreo tribe and the NGO Survival have been working tirelessly for the past few years to try and halt the march of the bulldozers, but the Environment Ministry of Paraguay has recently issued a environmental license allowing Yaguarete to begin raising cattle to be shipped off to European markets.

On their own the Ayoreo don't have much hope at this point, but if we stand with them, and tell President Cartes, Yaguarete Pora and The European Union that the lives of these people, and the protection of their home and our planet are more important than profits, then together we can stop the bulldozers.


More information:

http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/9839

http://www.minorityrights.org/5131/paraguay/ayoreo.html