‘A cemetery of trees’: vast green expanses turned to dust as loggers plunder South America’s Gran Chaco | Deforestation

IThe Gran Chaaco forest, vast green spaces – the home of jaguars, the giant Armadillos, and the HGORER – have turned into fields of dust. “It was an invasion,” says Bash Nuhim, a member of the original Qom community, but shortly after and says.

Gran Chaco is the second largest forest in South America after the Amazon; that it 100 meters hectare (247 meters acres) extends across Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil and Bolivia. It is also one of the richest areas of biological diversity in the world – It hosts more than 3400 types of plants, 500 birds, 150 mammals, 120 reptiles and 100 amphibians.

But as agricultural industries and registrar registration on the region are also one of the most places on the ground.

About 7 meters of original forests lost in Argentina between 1998 and 2023, according to L. Official dataon 80 % She was in Gran Chaku. New characters From Greenpeace shows that approximately 150,000 hectares (370,000 acres) were destroyed in the forest in 2024 – an increase of 10 % over the previous year.

After the tape, the tape was converted into agricultural or burning lands, and the locals were forced from their homes and wild animals are taken off by the walls. Greenpeace says, the only way to describe it is “forest state.” While Amazon is granted international audit and advertising, environmental scientists say Gran Chaaco quietly disappears.

Natai Colette, a guard and technician in the park, witnessed the destruction directly. “First, they cut value trees for sale, then they come to the rest with machines and chains. Then, set fire to the ground, and kill everything. All that remains is a desert.”

Colette says that the removal of forests has occurred since “the first colonists have come” but over the past fifteen years, “companies have come with everything they have.” “There is no hour of comfort, this happens throughout the hours, every day,” she says, adding that the best technology and leaflets have accelerated the process.

Juan Diego Ayigo, an environmental researcher and member of the Somos Monte Group, explains the amount of forest removal under the radar. He says: “It is called Pinprick Land: Instead of removing the forests thousands of hectares at one time, they will take less than 500 hectares at the same time.” “It is difficult to discover even it is too late. It seems that nothing happens, but everything happens.”

Gran chaco is home to A wide range of wildlifeIncluding the wolves of Mantad, Osilots, Tapers, Armadolus, Capibarras, Wow monkeys. As its habitats are shrinking, many species are at risk now, biologists warn.

“We have animals in an immediate danger of losing these gardens forever, such as Chacoan Peccary, the giant Armadilo, Osilot. But I think it is today, given the current situation, all animals are in danger,” says Colette.

Jaguar is one of the most vulnerable species, with estimates of maintaining its range in Argentina Shrink More than 95 % in The past 150 years. Officials believe that only about 200 Jaguar remains in Argentina, and Less than 20 in Gran Chaku.

“Loss of habitats is the biggest problem ever. Animals have lost shelter, their prey, they are forced to migrate,” says Alicia Deljado, a biologist in the return of Argentina. “When the Earth is no longer connected – when it is divided by roads and farms – animals must move across the populated areas. People are afraid and chasing them.”

Colette explains that the monkeys, which rarely leave the curtains, need to connect a tree to find resources and survive. It also worries about Armadilo giantAnd, which is believed to be born only every three years. “A major change in the ecological system can have a major impact,” she says.

Forest removal is exacerbated Climate crisisCarbon stored from trees is also launched in the air, such as carbon dioxide. Nuhem says it had a more urgent effect on the climate as well. “Now we have very heat, the wind is stronger, the rains are rare and the land is dry,” she says. She added that drought has become longer, and the floods are more extreme.

The cutting of trees continues though The establishment of the forest law in Argentina in 2007It was presented in response to “expanding the agricultural borders”. The state now requires provincial governments to decide the areas that must be protected, and to determine restrictions on the removal of forests and perpetuate resources to preserve. But Hernan Giardini, the coordinator of the forest campaign in Greenbis, says: “The law is not enough, and our judicial system does not work to defend the forest.”

Forest removal also continues despite the ruling of 2019 by the Chako courts that order to be suspended.

“The removal of forests in Chako has been banned since 2019 – the courts have banned it, but it has never been applied,” says Enrique Phil, Environmental Lawyer and President of the Argentine Environmental Association.

A retired police officer recently told Al -Wasil newspaper that he was once, when he was about to confiscate illegal tree -filled trucks, received a call from a government official. He says: “Tell me to leave men – trees and trucks – they go.” “Whenever I tried to do the right thing, to stop the removal of the forests, the more it was, while those who committed crimes are freedom.”

Nuhem says the locals who are trying to prevent the removal of illegal forests have faced threats and violence for more than a decade.

“We started filming what was happening, collecting information and talking about it on the radio of our society. But then people began to contact the station and threaten us. They said:” If you do not stop, something will happen to you. “

In 2008, a group of Nuhem was kidnapped by a group of men.

“They told her to stop reporting the removal of the forests, and that if not, it will be killed. They hit her and raped her.” “I left the group and the village. The case has never been resolved and many people who help report silent forests.”

Colette says that the removal of illegal forests is dealing with impunity because “the government believes that Chaco is a resource for its use and exploitation.” “The only thing the government sees in the woods is the money,” she says.

Some of Main products From Chaku County are wood, soybeans, beef, cotton and tannins.

The Chako government did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but it has Previously said She seized the bulldozers and hung clearing permits to prevent illegal removal.

in Last year’s interview“The government wants to maintain the forest … but we also want to stop the poor.”

Phil says the state and companies justify the removal of forests by saying that it leads to economic development. “But Chako is one of the provinces that has most cases of deforestation in Argentina, and also one of Polest“Everyone mentions progress, but the presidents only enrich themselves,” he says.

Viali and his team filed a criminal complaint about the removal of forests, which is with Argentine prosecutors for investigation. “This is the first time in Chako that we had a state of this size,” says Vieali. “We want to break the impunity.”

But the indigenous people, who consider the trees gods, say the time runs out. “Removal of forests gives our cultural practices and our traditional knowledge, such as our medicine and language,” says Nuimim. “We have become weak, just like the forest.”

Find more Covering the era of extinction hereHe followed the correspondence of biological diversity Vepi Weston and Patrick Greenfield In the Guardian app for more nature coverage