in the past, you very rarely saw native paraguayans who were undernourished. they got their food, their medicine, everything, from the forest. but without their forest, they've lost everything. reporter: in the past 50 years, 2/3 of the forestland in paraguay has been clear-cut. instead there are now huge soybean, maize and cotton fields, most of them owned by agricultural multinationals. the district of minga pora in the east of the country: 40% of the farmers have left here. but jeronimo arevalos and his family don't want to give up their home. jeronimo: we're not opposed to large-scale agricultural production, but we are against the poisoning and disappearance of our communities. we're fighting to be able to create viable living conditions for our families. reporter: that's why the families have organized their own water supply. jeronimo: look at this, for example: water comes from over here, and over there, from another source. we channel these two sources together to generate power, and this machine pumps the water into a tank that holds 15000 liters. it