Paraguayan Chaco birds

From BirdLife:

Paraguayan Chaco up for review

09-04-2009

At a recent event, Guyra Paraguay (BirdLife in Paraguay), the Paraguay Secretary of the Environment (SEAM), the UN Development Program (UNDP), and the municipality of Bahía Negra launched the review of the Management Plan for the Chaco National Park. …

Bird species found in the Chaco include, Crowned Eagle Harpyhaliaetus coronatus, Black-legged Seriema Chunga burmeisteri, Greater Rhea Rhea Americana, Many-coloured Chaco-finch Saltatricula multicolor, and Quebracho Crested-tinamou Eudromia formosa.

Paraguay’s forests in crisis: here.

BirdLife Partner Guyra Paraguay has warned that if current rates of deforestation continue, the Chaco, currently home to rich and abundant biodiversity, could soon be reduced to the same state as South America’s Atlantic Forest: isolated fragments providing a tenuous clawhold for the threatened remnants of its bird species: here.

Guyra Paraguay has launched the first major report on the status of bird populations in Paraguay. The report, entitled State of Paraguay’s birds, outlines in detail the current status of the country’s birds, the threats they face and the urgent actions needed to secure their future: here.

In Paraguay a Familiar Story is Playing Out. Sean O’Leary, The Council on Hemispheric Affairs: “In Paraguay, the Ayoreo people are fighting for their very survival. These indigenous people are struggling to save their ancestral home in the Chaco region from cattle companies, farmers and religious sects who are moving into the region and clearing the land. New arrivals do this to make the land suitable for farming and grazing cattle. The combination of burning and then bulldozing the land leaves the region barren”: here.

Part of Asunción Bay Important Bird Area (IBA) is in the process of being destroyed by heavy machinery brought in to begin work on a new waterfront project in Paraguay’s capital city, despite the site being legally declared a Reserve in 2005: here.

After ten years of negotiations, the indigenous Kue Tuvy Aché community in Paraguay have gained formal recognition of their ownership of the land known as Finca 470, part of the Bosque Mbaracayú Important Bird Area: here.

On October 28, 1935, the Chaco Peace Conference reached a deal bringing an end to the war between Bolivia and Paraguay. The two countries had been locked since 1932 in a bitter struggle over the Gran Chaco region of South America, believed to be rich in oil reserves: here.