Dear Jack,

Perhaps no group better represents the right to reject contact – the theme of this year’s Uncontacted Peoples Week – than the uncontacted Ayoreo people who live in the scrub forests of central South America.

Most Ayoreo have in recent decades been forced out of their forest homes, by a combination of oil prospectors, missionaries and ranchers, and now live precariously on the fringes of Paraguayan society.

But some reject all attempts to contact them, and have made clear their desire to carry on living in the forest as long as it’s humanly possible.

That may not be for much longer, however. The forest is being bulldozed and burnt all around them, faster than almost anywhere else in the world. Ranching has consumed hundreds of thousands of acres of the Ayoreo’s ancestral forest. Some of the leather — one of the ranchers’ most profitable products — ends up in the seats of US and European cars.

One Ayoreo man, Esoi, told us: “All this land belonged to our ancestors, but the outsiders are going to destroy it all. I am very worried about this destruction, because we don't know exactly where the people still in the forest are living. I have a sister among them. This is why we don't want the outsiders to destroy more of the forest with their bulldozers.”

Esoi and the other contacted Ayoreo are doing everything they can to secure what remains of the forest, so their uncontacted relatives can live in peace. Working with friendly lawyers, they filed a legal claim to their land.

But the forces ranged against them are formidable, from powerful ranching companies with easy access to the corridors of power, to politicians in Congress with vested interests in the continuing destruction.

Please, Jack, act in support of the uncontacted Ayoreo – your backing is vital if they’re to survive.