London’s Natural History Museum Urged to Stay Out of Isolated Latam Area

LONDON (REUTERS)- Campaigners have urged London’s Natural History Museum to halt a botanical research expedition to a remote area in Paraguay, warning it would be “like genocide” for isolated indigenous groups in the region. Museum staff and scientists from Paraguay are due to set off this week, hoping to find new species in the little-explored forests of the Dry Chaco. But indigenous peoples’ protection groups say the expedition could run into natives who live in the territory, disturbing their way of life and infecting them with potentially fatal diseases. Benno Glauser, director of the Paraguay-based protection group Iniciativa Amotocodie, wrote to the museum, saying its month-long trip would intrude into the territory of Ayoreo Indians who have never had contact with the outside world. He included a statement from Ayoreo leaders who live in a town

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