New paper: "who defends us?"

In a new article in Journal of Peasant Studies, Yann discusses how Criollo smallholders have been dealing with an upsurge in large-scale land deals in the Paraguayan Chaco over the last few decades. The upshot: they are doing all they can, but in the face of immense power imbalances, that is often still not enough.

Paraguay is experiencing tremendous pressure on land, with rates of conversion to agriculture among the highest in the world. In the Pilcomayo River basin, in the borderlands of Paraguay with Argentina and Bolivia, small-scale Criollo livestock herders are being squeezed out of their traditional livelihoods by outside investors.

Faced with constant pressure on land from outside actors, Criollo smallholders are responding in a variety of ways, including some contestation and resistance but also forms of everyday cooperation, intensification of production, livelihood diversification, and relocation.

These responses are shaping the Chaco landscapes even where the land has not yet been converted to large-scale agriculture by investors. People used to rely on an extensive, forest-based livestock herding system for a living. Today, those who are not driven out of livestock herding altogether are forced to fundamentally change their production systems to adapt to an increasingly scarce land base.

It is late to alter course, as most of the land in the Paraguayan Chaco has already been appropriated and converted by large-scale actors, but securing land tenure for those families that are still on the land but do not have titles and providing legal support to those currently facing investor claims on their land should be the absolute priority for any entity seeking to support the region’s Criollo population.