Peoples

The current area of the Reserve was previously occupied by nomadic hunter-gatherers of the Aché people.

Aché history

At the time of contact in the late twentieth century there were four independent populations of Aché.

The largest group, the northern Aché, roamed an area of about 18,500 square kilometres from the Sierra San Joaquin to the Río Paraná. The northern limit of this group's present territory is in the Sierra de Mbaracayú. This northern group numbered about 550 people before contact (in the 1970s) and inhabited the Río Jejuí drainage, using the natural resources of the then pristine forest.

Later, many of the groups mixed and established themselves in association with various missions. The northern Aché people today number about 600. Although all the communities are outside the core protected area of the Reserve, the Aché have retained the right to hunt and gather within its limits in their traditional ways.

Other groups

Other indigenous groups, all members of the Guaraní linguistic family, have more recently migrated to the area and have established communities around the limits of the Reserve:

  • In the area of the cerrado the Ava Katuete or Ava Chiripa, who traditionally inhabit the transition zone between cerrado and forest, have established communities.
  • Near the southeastern boundary there are Mbyá communities.
  • Towards the Río Jejuí Guazú there are communities of Pa’i Tavytera.

Maintaining culture

Although all of the communities, Aché and Guaraní, are more or less integrated into Paraguayan society, they all retain much of their traditional knowledge and many of their cultural practices, above all in the uses of the plant life around them. This knowledge needs to be taken into account in planning any study in the region.