May Meet Up 2024
Watch the aftermovie of the May 2024 meetup of Voices for Just Climate Action
Meer info Bolivia and Paraguay
Indigenous communities in the Chaco Pantanal struggle to access essential natural resources.
Chaco-Pantanal regions face many climate challenges
The Gran Chaco and Pantanal regions in South America are ecologically diverse areas facing various challenges. The Gran Chaco spans Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay, containing vast forests and significant biodiversity. In the last 25 years, the average deforestation in this region was 336,000 hectares per year. On the other hand, the Pantanal is a large wetland shared by Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay, renowned for its rich flora and fauna and its role in regulating floods and water quality. The region experiences warmer days and nights than in the past, including temperatures that have never been registered.
Read more about the landscape (PDF).
What is the situation?
The population in the Chaco-Pantanal region, including indigenous communities, rely on diverse livelihood activities such as fishing, agriculture, cattle ranching, hunting, and handicrafts. However, climate change poses increasing challenges, including rising temperatures, shifting seasons, and variable rainfall, impacting water access, food security, and livelihoods. Deforestation (forest clearing for agriculture) is also a major concern. This leads to soil degradation and increased vulnerability to droughts and hampers indigenous communities' access to natural resources.
How can VCA support local partners?
Civil society, particularly marginalized groups, lacks representation and involvement in decision-making processes related to local climate agendas. The Voices for Just Climate Action (VCA) network aims to address these challenges by expanding civic space, identify regional linkages with other movements and develop local solutions for climate change adaptation.
The VCA network consists of a diversity of local organizations in the Chaco-Pantanal regions.
Grassroots partner UCINY
The Union of Indigenous Communities of the Yshir Nation
“We get legal and administrative support from WWF-Paraguay and VCA, for the land restitution of the Yshir ancestral territories.”
Updates
© WWF-Bolivia
Nardy Velasco, a Voice for Just Climate Action: Water is Life
“Voices for Just Climate Action is for us a very important alliance to be part of. We feel that for us as indigenous communities, and as woman, VCA is our best ally, and we hope to always count on them as they can count on us.”
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©Mauricio Mendez / WWF Bolivia
Motacusito women
In the heart of Puerto Suárez, a small town in Bolivia, Motacusito emerges as a beacon of nature conservation and female empowerment. Four women—Quidian Roman, Ana Maria Tomichá, Marisol Román Méndez, and Dayana Espinoza—initiated a silent revolution in 2019 to secure the official recognition and protection of the Motacusito area.
Meer info A Voice for Just Climate Action: Zulma Franco
Zulma Franco, an informal Yshir indigenous leader from the Paraguayan Pantanal, shares her insights on the impacts of climate change on nature and indigenous populations.
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WWF, Andre Dib
Overview local partners Chaco-Pantanal landscape
In the Chaco-Pantanal landscape (Bolivia and Paraguay), VCA has 33 local partners. Among them a diversity of rural and urban civil society organizations, alternative media, and grassroots organizations: some youth-led, other Indigenous-led or woman led, led by local peasants or rural defenders. In the Chaco-Pantanal landscape (Bolivia and Paraguay), VCA has 33 local partners. Among them a diversity of rural and urban civil society organizations, alternative media, and grassroots organizations: some youth-led, other Indigenous-led or woman led, led by local peasants or rural defenders.
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