Negotiating Environmental Subjectivities: Charcoal Production and Mennonite– Ayoreo Relations in the Paraguayan Chaco Paola Canova, University of Texas at Austin Introduction In recent decades, western Paraguay, part of the larger Gran Chaco region, has been the focus of increased attention following a renewed wave of frontier-style development that is causing the highest rates of deforestation in this region, the second-largest forested area in lowland South America after the Amazon. It is estimated that about 192 hectares per day are being deforested (Guyra Paraguay, 2018) and converted into soybean fields and pasturelands for cattle ranching, the latter positioning Paraguay as the fifth- largest exporter of beef worldwide (Veit & Sarsfield, 2017). A related and more silent, but not less detrimental, activity among the Chaco forests has been the production of charcoal for export. According to UK-based NGO Earthsight, Germany and the UK are currently the largest buyers of Paraguayan charcoal. In 2017, they conducted an investigative report which revealed that BRICAPAR, a Paraguayan company whose major shareholder is ex-Minister of Public Works Ramón Giménez Gaona, is one of the main providers of charcoal to US and European markets. 1 In early 2017, some 22,000 bags of Paraguayan charcoal entered Germany every day, and 5,000 arrived in the UK (Earthsight, 2017). While the NGO’s report awakened buyers to the ongoing rapid deforestation of the Chaco and successfully led