2. Bolivia has an important area of forests, mostly in its subtropical and
tropical regions. Deforestation reaches approximately 200,000
hectares for year, especially in the lowlands, while forest degradation
is more pronounced in the Andean forests.
INTRODUCTION
3. Cattle ranching is currently the main direct cause of
deforestation, followed by medium and large-scale
mechanized agriculture, mostly for soybean
production, and then small-scale agriculture. The main
underlying causes of deforestation include, among
others, the opening of the agricultural economy to
international markets as well as institutional
weaknesses that hinder the application of agrarian and
forestry legislation.
Effects on agricultutre
4. What was done?
Bolivia has assumed an official position against
the commodification of nature and in defense
of the rights of Mother Earth. After an
outright rejection of the REDD proposal,
Bolivia has developed an alternative proposal
called "Joint Mitigation and Adaptation
Mechanism for the Comprehensive and
Sustainable Management of Forests and
Mother Earth", which has been included in the
international negotiations of climate change.
5. The proposal …
This proposal adopts a strong focus on
the recovery of local experiences for
sustainable and comprehensive
management of natural resources and
land use planning based on different
levels of government. In this context,
our analysis suggests that there is still a
lack of concrete concepts to mitigate
direct threats to forests; In addition,
the control of illegal deforestation
continues to be insufficient.
6. Additionally, we emphasize that in parallel to nature
protection policies, there is also a contradictory agenda for
expanding the agricultural frontier. The future shows
whether the vision of "Living Well in harmony with Mother
Earth" can really be translated into effective measures to
stop the loss and deterioration of the enormous wealth that
Bolivian forests represent.
