( CNN ) -- A small tribe of Indians in Paraguay who have had virtually no contact with the outside world won a legal battle this week when rights groups stopped a Brazilian company from continuing to bulldoze the forest to clear land for cattle ranches . About 2,000 members of the Ayoreo ethnic group live in 13 settlements in Bolivia and Paraguay . The Totobiegosode tribe , said to number no more than 300 , is the last group of uncontacted Indians in South America outside the Amazon River basin , indigenous rights groups say . The Totobiegosode , who are part of the larger Ayoreo ethnic group , are nomadic Indians who hunt and fish , as well as gather fruit and honey and cultivate small temporary plots during the rainy season . They live communally , four to six families to a dwelling , in the dense forests of northwestern Paraguay . Two Brazilian companies have been rapidly clearing land the Totobiegosode live on , and the tribe has lost nearly 15,000 acres ( about 6,000 hectares ) this year , according to British-based Survival International , an advocacy organization for the rights of tribal people . A ruling Thursday by Paraguay 's secretary of the environment canceled a special permit for one of the companies , Yaguarete Pora S.A. , to clear the land . The legal battle is being waged by local groups such as GAT , an acronym in Spanish for People , Environment and Territory . The activist groups have undertaken the fight without the knowledge of the Totobiegosode . Indian rights proponents see Thursday 's ruling as an important victory . `` This sends a very significant signal , '' said Jonathan Mazower , campaign coordinator for Survival International . `` Until now , the ranchers and the landowners have really had it all their own way . They are very politically powerful and well-funded . ... This may be a sign that the government is starting to get a grip on the situation . '' As their territory has been gobbled up , some Totobiegosode have been spotted by other Indians retreating deeper into the vanishing jungle : a group of eight or nine men on one occasion , a smaller group several days earlier , Survival International reported in a release Friday . The problems for the larger Ayoreo ethnic group , who share a common language and culture and can be found in Bolivia and Paraguay , started about 50 years ago . Between 1959 and 1987 , most Ayoreos were forced off their ancestral land , according to the World Rainforest Movement , which describes itself as international network of citizens ' groups involved in efforts to defend the world 's rainforests . About 2,000 Ayoreos live in 13 settlements : 10 in Bolivia and three in Paraguay , the rainforest group says . Only the Totobiegosode tribe still lives in the forest , without contact with other Ayoreos or foreigners , in an area known as Amotocodie . Although no one has any direct contact with the Totobiegosode still in the jungle , their presence can be seen by such signs as footprints and holes in trees that indicate they have been gathering honey , the rainforest group says . There also have been occasional sightings in the distance . Mazower said he interviewed a small group of Totobiegosode who made contact with the outside world in 2004 and who described what their life is like . `` We were always running , '' Mazower said one Indian told him . `` We would suddenly hear these bulldozers . We thought that it was a kind of monster that could smell us . We could see fire . We were very afraid , and we ran . '' The bulldozers , Mazower said , are much larger than the commercial bulldozers seen at construction sites . Often , crews will string a chain between two bulldozers , which will move in tandem to cut down an increased number of trees . As a result , many groups of Totobiegosode are fragmented into isolated patches as they scatter , divided by areas with no forest and increasingly busy roads . Families can be separated , and their lives become increasingly difficult , Mazower said . By Survival International 's reckoning , the forest where the Totobiegosode live is being destroyed at a faster rate than the Amazon jungle as a whole . Despite Thursday 's ruling , some observers say the future of tribes still living in the jungle in Paraguay and elsewhere , particularly Brazil , does not bode well . `` It 's almost impossible in some sense to protect these tribes , '' said Peter Hakim , president of the Inter-American Dialogue , a Washington-based policy center . The reason , he said , is the same as it has been since the Western world started being colonized more than 500 years ago : `` There 's a lot of money to be made . ''
Totobiegosode tribe is among last uncontacted Indians in the Amazon River . Ruling revokes permit for Indians company to clear forest . Activists undertook legal fight without Peter Hakim ' knowledge . Tribe has lost about 6,000 hectares of land the rainy season .