The destroyed forests of the Gran Chaco

In the Gran Chaco forest area, or Chaco for short, more and more bushes and trees are being cleared to make way for large-scale soy and cattle farms to meet global demand. Gran Chaco is the second-largest forest area in South America, spanning parts of Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil. Summers are hot and humid, and winters moderately warm and sometimes very dry.

Noole, an indigenous Pilaga, and her brother Jose Rolando Fernandez, run a watermelon and potato farm in northern Argentina. They are often out in the forests of the Gran Chaco. For the siblings, the trees there have great significance. They help set the natural rhythm of life, provide food, water and cooling in this sparsely populated part of South America.

Jose Rolando Fernandez grows potatoes himself. He says his family's connection to the trees is almost spiritual. His sister Noole adds, "The native forest has a function that we must value. Indigenous people believe that the land is our home. The earth is our mother because we produce and eat from it."

But this habitat is coming under increasing pressure, and in some cases indigenous inhabitants and small businesses are being displaced. A possible new trade agreement between the Mercosur countries and the EU could lead to more exports from the Gran Chaco and more deforestation, although the EU will likely impose strict regulations to limit deforestation.

Many countries have imposed import regulations to prevent illegal logging, including Argentina's so-called Forest Law of 2007. But not all people in the region are opposed to logging: Some locals point to the importance of agricultural exports for job creation in their region, where half the population lives in poverty.

Teofila Palma, a farmer in Gran Chaco who herds her goats, told Reuters that recent deforestation has had a significant impact on the local microclimate. "Since the deforestation, the temperature is even higher. And the wind sweeps in from the north without us being able to do anything about it," she says.

Farmers complain that many local producers have lost their livestock because logging has eroded the soil and hindered growth in the pastureland. "The agreement is for the economic and business world," Noole says, not for indigenous people. "They have never taken us into account," Noole says.