As agriculture expands into the tropics, farmers struggle to produce a profit from some of the worldâs most fragile soils.  They usually fail and the wave of agricultural development leaves a red desert in its wake.  Recent research of traditional agroforestry systems point out that profits can be earned from forests without the environmental destruction of land clearing.  Scientists follow Amazonian rubber tappers and Brazil nut collectors, searching for examples of commercial development that earns profit from natural ecosystems (e.g., Redford and Padoch 1992; Schwartzman and Allegretti 1989).  These cases have helped to define alternative models of sustainable economic development, strategies that also protect the diverse tropical environment (e.g., Clay 1988; Posey and Balée 1989).

The following analyzes commercial agroforestry in Eastern Paraguay, detailing the means that indigenous Guaraní have earned a profit from the forest.  The study moves from analysis of the ecological effects of commercial agroforestry, to focus on its social ramifications.  For centuries, indigenous Chiripá have harvested commodities for international markets without degrading the subtropical deciduous forest.  The Chiripá have done so, moreover, without being assimilated into the larger society.  This case suggests that indigenous peoples can become involved in market economies, in fact develop their own commercial systems, without undermining the environment.  Moreover, where agroforestry integrates subsistence and market production, this commerce can give indigenous groups economic power to maintain distinct societies in the frontier setting.

Keywords: indigenous people, commercial production, agroforestry; Paraguay