The "Silla del Gran Chaco" is an ideal symbol of hope for a sustainable economy, able to transform its own wealth into resources, while protecting the environment and activating a virtuous circle capable of bringing together many different communities. (see link)
The Morelato company participated in the project and created a chair, designed by Franco Poli.
The seat is made of ash and Gran Chaco corrugated wood, a raw material of certified origin that becomes a design object.
The chair is intended to be produced in small series, with certified wood, and to be marketed as a design object made from raw materials normally intended for much less profitable uses. An extraordinary raw material like Urunday wood can be used in small quantities compared to its usual use. Many other things can be made from it: the rudder of a ship made from this wood, for example, is so durable that it requires no maintenance.

They are the : Quebracho, Algarrobo, Guayacan, Itin, Urunday and Palo Santo.
Quebracho was named after the expression 'quebra acha' ('axe-breaker'), because of its very hard wood. Quebracho beams in 18th century Jesuit missions still serve their function today.
The Algarrobo has a wood similar to that of the oak and produces about 40 kg of fruit each year, from which a flour is made that sells for $7 per kg. The large-scale marketing of its flour would generate more revenue than the felling of the plant.
The baton of the President of Argentina is made of Urunday, an underwater rot-proof wood, synonymous with durability and solidity.
Itin, an excellent alternative to ebony, is used for boat decks.
Palo Santo is used to make ball bearings for small hydroelectric power plants in the USA. Attempts to replace it with synthetic materials were abandoned because they were less cost-effective.
At this rate, within a few decades, little or nothing will remain of the forests that were virgin in the early 1900s. With the forests, the indigenous cultures that originate and draw lifeblood from them risk disappearing
Wealth destroyed for paltry profits
How is this extraordinary resource, which nature takes 200 or 300 years to produce, used? One hectare of forest contains 50 tonnes of valuable wood that is sold for 20 dollars a tonne, often to make charcoal. The destruction of one hectare of forest thus generates a one-off profit of USD 500.
In other words: cut much less but sell at much higher prices.
Forests decrease, their value increases, it pays to invest in their management. Economic logic and environmental needs can be reconciled.
This is an attainable goal with a more prudent and modern management of forest resources, improving their efficiency with due training, provision of new machinery and assistance in marketing: relatively low investment and potentially high profitability It can be done because the economic margins are enormous.

At the request of the community of Puerto Barras, a long unused wooden building was restored and refurbished, built with wooden planks on a concrete base, according to a technique traditionally used in Puerto Barra.
The wooden walls will be decorated with the traditional pyrography technique, normally used for sculptures, transferring ornamental motifs or forest landscapes onto larger surfaces.
The Museum already hosts a display of handicrafts such as wood carvings, basket bows and arrows.
The Museo Verde is also defining a project to improve the production capacity of vegetables by including the cultivation of medicinal herbs with medicinal qualities with the aim of contributing to the preservation and enhancement of ancient customs. According to the 'Pact for the Gran Chaco', launched at Cop 26 in 2022, medicinal herbs, as well as tropical woods, handicrafts and niche tourism are resources that have so far not been sufficiently exploited, capable of triggering sustainable development dynamics both environmentally and economically, with the proper involvement of the indigenous peoples.
Logistical information.
How to get there
By car, approximately 400 km from Asunción. Road No. 2 then, a few tens of kilometres from Ciudad de l'Este, ruta No. 6, which is 63 km long, passing the town of Santa Rita. At km186, on the left, a dirt road of about 15 km leads to Puerto Barra.

Karcha Bahlut's is the first Museo Verde, built with palm and quebracho wood in 2016. It houses a small paneled photographic exhibition, with reproductions of objects acquired by Guido Boggiani at the end of the 19th century and given to the Pigorini Museum in Rome, where they are still preserved in perfect condition. Donatella Saviola, curator of this collection at the MuCiv, introduces it with these words: "Creating human ornaments with feathers is an art which, in addition to great skill, requires a profound knowledge of the ecosystem, the world of birds and their behaviour.

In the Chaco, only the Ishir create feathered art as skilfully as the artisans of the Amazon. With the plumage of parrots, nandos and ducks, they make large belts, diadems, crowns, earrings, bracelets and anklets, in short, all those elements that together form the costumes of the ritual masks used in collective ceremonies, in which human and divine actors are summoned to share and enact the mythical events that gave life to the community".

Bruno Barras, cachique of the community, adds, "We, the Yshir Ybytoso, respect what Mother Nature gives us, especially the birds, which are messengers and communicate through her. Since prehistoric times, the culture of feather art has been carried out as an element that reflects the great value of feathers and their confession, an important tradition of our ancestral knowledge. Each feather element used determines the criteria of the type of ritual dance, as well as the hierarchy of the person using it. Through this art, the life of the people is safeguarded. I invite you to learn about the wisdom found in feather art and to enter the magical world of Ybytoso through it."

How to get there...

By car. TransChaco road (paved) to Loma Plata 439 km. Then 408 km dirt road to Bahia Negra. To Karcha Bahlut 15 km by trail or alternatively by boat.

by plane. Asuncion Bahia Negra SETAM weekly connections.

By bus. Weekly connections Asuncion Bahia Negra Stel Turismo.

By boat. Weekly connections Concepción Bahia Negra by boat Aquidaban.

Images of handicraft objects from the Boggiani collection at the end of the 19th century, obtained thanks to the kind offer of the MUCIV, Museo Pigorini in Rome, were used to create, with the contribution of Brazilian anthropologist Renata Curcio Valente, illustrative material on the history of the Kadiwéu.

This material was used to produce electronic booklets for the six indigenous schools of the Porto Murtinho municipality.

The same material was used to produce 4 panels made of rigid material (forex), with a metal support structure, which were placed in the Municipal Museum of the town of Porto Murtinho, thus creating a "Kadiwéu corner".

A similar procedure was followed to print the same material on synthetic canvas to hang them at the headquarters of the Association of Kadiwéu Women Artisans in the Alves de Barro Community.

A copy of a ceramic made with a 3D printer was then given to Elisangela, a Caduveo artisan from São João, along with a collection of two-dimensional paper images of artefacts from the Boggiani collection.

In essence, the Kadiwéu Museo Verde does not consist, at least so far, of a single infrastructure, but of three different types of intervention. Two, visible at Porto Murtinho and Alves de Barro, have taken the form of panels.

A third is for the time being only immaterial, consisting of electronic material made available to the younger indigenous generations in order to stimulate in them the preservation of historical memory and the pride of belonging to a centuries-old culture.

How to get there.

-Porto Murtinho can be reached from La Punta (Carmelo Peralta), with a boat that takes 10 minutes to cross the Paraguay River.

-Alves de Barro. From Porto Murtinho 283 km of paved road to Bodoquena, and then 53 km of dirt road, which can be covered in an hour and a half.

In Fortín Lavalle, in the Argentine Chaco, there is an Association of Qom Women Artisans who have set up their own premises as a workshop/showroom for their products, mainly bags and other handicrafts made from palm leaf weaving. The first example of a "light" Museo Verde was set up here.
No infrastructure was built. All that was done was to put up panels inside the association's headquarters informing about the history and culture of the Qom people, with photos and texts, similar to those of the Caduveo people in the Brazilian Pantanal. The craftswomen appreciated the initiative, which aims to illustrate the close link between ancient traditions and modern craft production, and pointed out that the panels attracted the attention and interest of visitors.
The Museo Verde ava guarani (ongoing project)
In 2018, the Museo Verde contacted the Ava Guarani community of Monteagudo, Bolivia, and provided them with high definition image prints of artefacts kept in the Ethnological Museum in Florence. These were objects of various kinds (bags, ceramics, a necklace, a silver pin, a wooden ocarina) from the late 19th century, which aroused great interest and curiosity in our interlocutors. Similarities were found with those produced today. For example, some ceramics were almost identical. The custom of using coins as a decorative element, which can be seen in the image of an ancient bag in the collection of the Ethnological Museum of Florence, is still in vogue today to make necklaces used in traditional festivities.

In 2018, the Museo Verde made contact with the Ava Guaranì community of Monteagudo, Bolivia, and gave them high-definition image prints of artefacts kept in the Ethnological Museum in Florence. These were objects of various kinds (bags, ceramics, a necklace, a silver pin, a wooden ocarina), dating back to the end of the 19th century, which aroused keen interest and curiosity in our interlocutors. Similarities were found with those produced today. For example, some ceramics were found to be almost identical. The custom of using coins as a decorative element, which can be seen in the image of an antique bag in the collection of the Florence Ethnological Museum, is still in vogue today for making collars used in traditional festivals.

The community of Nueva Pompeya, where the Museo Verde was built, has a long history.
In 1900, Father Bernabé Tambolleo founded the Franciscan mission, whose building is still the most important structure in the town, and assembled a collection of indigenous artifacts that is now housed in the Anthropological Museum in Florence.
In the 1960s, an unconventional character changed the course of the indigenous community's history. Guillermina, also known as "the rebel nun", was a nun who could draw a pistol and fly small planes. She formed an indigenous cooperative to run a sawmill, which rescued the Wichi community from the role of serfs into which they had fallen, giving them unprecedented economic independence. His memory, and that of his achievements, lives on today.
It took place in the town of Nueva Pompeya, restoring and renovating part of a shed that housed an old sawmill, the same one that gave life to the epic of the times of the "Rebel Nun". A giant saw from the middle of the last century is still there, as a monument of industrial archaeology linked to the history of the Wichi community.
In another part of the same shed, there is a carpentry workshop run by the same indigenous community. The Museo Verde is implementing a project to modernise this workshop so that it can supply semi-finished products, with certification of origin guaranteeing that they come from forests managed according to environmental sustainability criteria, to European companies that produce high-quality designer furniture, such as "Silla Gran Chaco".
The museum hosts a mini-exhibition on wrought iron panels of Wichi artefacts from the Tambolleo collection, which have aroused great interest in the indigenous community, evoking memories of the characteristics, production methods and uses of the objects represented. These include bags, belts, utensils and ceramics from the early 20th century, the originals of which are kept in the Anthropological Museum in Florence.
Logistical information.
By car: about 400 km of paved road from Asunción to Miraflores and another 120 km of dirt road to Nueva Pompeya.