‘Who defends us?' Criollo livestock herders amidst commodity frontier expansion in the Paraguayan Chaco

2025/02/26 by Yann le Polain de Waroux · 2 voices · 2 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Social Sciences · #Agriculture and Rural Development Research #Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development #Anthropological Studies and Insights

paper · doi:10.1080/03066150.2025.2462759

openalex publication_date 2025/02/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15

Abstract

The expansion of large-scale cattle ranches and commercial crop farms into the Gran Chaco woodlands is displacing forest-based smallholders at an alarming rate. In this paper, I use the case of Criollo livestock herders in the Paraguayan Chaco to explore how smallholders have responded to land deals in the Chaco’s agricultural commodity frontiers, and how these responses, along with the land deals themselves, are transforming the Chaco landscape. I show that Criollo livestock herders engage in a multiplicity of strategies that go beyond contestation and resistance and encompass forms of everyday cooperation, intensification of production, livelihood diversification, and relocation.

Citations

• Exploring the Frontier of Livelihoods Research
• Troubled waters at the frontier: Mapping forest-dependent people's access to surface water in the Dry Chaco

Cited by

• Commodity frontiers expand more slowly into tropical forests where forest smallholders are present
• “Dream brokers” and the moral economy of frontier investments

Discussions

• In a new article in the Journal of Peasant Studies, I discuss how Criollo smallholders have dealt with large-scale land deals in the Paraguayan Chaco. The upshot: they are doing all they can, but in t [bsky, 7 points, 1 comments]
• Congratulations to Prof. Yann le Polain de Waroux on his recent publication "‘Who defends us?' Criollo livestock herders amidst commodity frontier expansion in the Paraguayan Chaco" in The Journal of [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]

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