The Gran Chaco is a vast area in the centre of South America involving Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay. If they were once areas of cultivation and
and livelihoods for peasant and indigenous communities, they have now become an area of intensive exploitation for the agri-food and mining industries with serious repercussions on water availability, soil impoverishment and erosion, and inevitable damage to the ecosystem. The local peasant and indigenous populations – who base their economy on family farming – are the first to suffer.
In the Paraguayan area of the Gran Chaco, COOPI Suisse is implementing a multi-year project comprising a set of measures aimed at enhancing the productive capacities of the indigenous peoples and fostering sustainable development in the region, which includes sustainable farming techniques, land development plans, awareness-raising initiatives on ecotourism and sustainable land management, and meetings on environmental conservation.
The project started in the second half of 2021 and has already resulted in the distribution of seeds for vegetable gardens and farms for the benefit of 300 families, approximately 1,230 people. Many more activities will be implemented during 2022.
