Reforestation 1: Paraguay

Gaucho in Paraguay.

Ode to the wasteland

How boring! We cross the Bridge of Friendship to Paraguay. Along the route we drive for hours past endless soybean plantations. The extent of monoculture even goes beyond my imagination. It seems to me as if I am in the geographical heart chamber of the soy producers who produce here on a very large scale for our woke culture. Shortly before cardiac arrest. This has to go wrong. And Paraguay is not even the largest soy producer. According to WWF, 80% of soybeans come from the USA, Brazil and Argentina.

At least they're happy.

From 2000 to 2010, huge areas of forest and savannah were converted into arable land: 24 million hectares. According to foreign trade statistics (as of 2020), Germany alone purchases 3.9 million tons of soy, mostly from the USA and Brazil. Such numbers are overwhelming. And we're not even talking about livestock farming and the destruction of rainforests for timber production. Given these figures, Latin American countries are understandably annoyed by the lectures of the Eurocrats and their double standards. But what is the solution?

Around midday we reach the Hotel Papillon in Bella Vista. The city has around 8,000 inhabitants. It was founded in 1918 on the Rio Paraná by German immigrants. The Selecta mate factory has its headquarters nearby. Mate is the Paraguayan national drink. According to the descriptions of our guide Gustav, it is very healthy, performance-enhancing and invigorating. It is drunk hot. Cold it is called Tereré. I tried it. Mate was too bitter for me. That's why newbies throw away the first infusion. Still doesn't taste good to me. Sorry.

What remains.

In the former Jesuit reduction La Santisima Trinidad de Paraná from 1706, Gustav shows us the remains of the complex. It is now also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Guarani Indians were made to settle here - admittedly in very abbreviated terms - in order to later enslave them under the later Spanish colonial rulers. This is nothing new! You toil away, dragging stones, hammering and chiseling like there's no tomorrow, humping, sliming for "Larga vida a la revolución!" and in the end everything is for the cat. I conclude from this: Human emotional development does not keep up with cognitive development and lags behind it by centuries. Sad.

With every day we are steadily getting closer to our goal - reforestation operations on over 13,000 hectares. But what would a visit to Paraguay be without an overnight stay at a ranch. Our stopover at Estancia Tacuaty took our breath away. Located here on 2,700 hectares of agricultural production: a small hotel, main house, various outbuildings - supposedly even a small airstrip, which is needed in this isolation. This is very reminiscent of the US series Yellowstone, with the dancing wolf Kevin Costner from the 90s.

What a development, so far away from everything. Only one word comes to mind: freedom. Exactly the right place to witness political discussions between Heiko and Anton while getting together at night on the terrace. Anton, from the liberal, Heiko, from the left political spectrum. Chris and I are somewhere in between. But that doesn't fit here. I'm still relatively calm.

The blow was to hit me the day after next. OmG!