National Parks
Bolivia has nature reserves and national parks, the total area of which represents about 18% of its territory. These protected areas are dedicated to the preservation of extremely varied ecosystems, but they often lack resources and some are threatened by mining, hydrographic or oil exploitation projects. Today, there are several collaborative projects carried out by local populations, aiming at the development of activities respectful of biodiversity and indigenous cultures (ecotourism). When planning your trip, try to appeal to these tourist associations that often aim to ensure the self-financing of natural parks.
Noel Kempff Mercado National Park: located in the department of Santa Cruz, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it protects a mosaic of natural environments, including savannahs, wetlands, dry and humid forests, associated with an exceptional biodiversity.
Otuquis National Park: located in the department of Santa Cruz, on the borders of Brazil and Paraguay, it protects the ecosystems of the Pantanal, an exceptional group of wetlands, a true reservoir of biodiversity and a regulating element of the cycles linked to water.
Indigenous Territory and National Park Isiboro-Secure (TIPNIS): located in the departments of Beni and Cochabamba, TIPNIS is home to a great diversity of environments, from the Andes to the edge of the Amazon rainforest, and indigenous populations. In 2011, under the impetus of President Evo Morales, a road infrastructure project to cross this territory was presented. Of course, it met with strong opposition from indigenous peoples and environmentalists, because it would divide the jungle in two and displace several ethnic groups, mainly the Yuracarés and Chimanes. Álvaro Marcelo García Linera, then vice-president of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, tried awkwardly to calm the tensions by underlining that this road would only improve the living conditions of the inhabitants of the region by assuring them a better access to health care, to education and to employment. Several months of protest, including a march to La Paz initiated in 2011 by indigenous communities, had closed the project for the first time and resulted in a law of intangibility of the TIPNIS. In 2017, a new law reverses this character of intangibility and the project is relaunched. Referred to in 2017, the International Tribunal for the Rights of Nature issued a verdict in 2019 requesting the halt of the work, which has nevertheless begun. Behind this speech was hidden an obvious intention, that of increasing tenfold the export of raw materials to Asia while giving the East, access to the Andes and then the Pacific. It should be noted that this path would justify the unbridled exploitation of hydrocarbons for Brazil while allowing the producers of coca to access new territories of production, which would generate a massive deforestation that would decrease the infiltration of water while increasing the erosion of the soil. This contradictory discourse clearly demonstrates the simultaneous existence of two opposing models: a set of alternative ideas to "development", and neo-extractivism.
The challenges of agriculture
Land use change is a major concern in Bolivia, accounting for nearly 80% of the country's overall emissions. In 2021, Bolivia was the third country with the most forest loss after Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo. One of the main causes of this phenomenon is the intensive practice of export monocultures (especially soy and quinoa). In addition to inducing massive deforestation (Bolivia lost 32,000 km² - an area larger than Belgium - of primary rainforest between 2002 and 2020, according to Global Forest Watch estimates), this method simultaneously leads to the construction of dams for irrigation and the abusive use of pesticides, which are the cause of the degradation of natural environments and the erosion of biodiversity. These monocultures develop to the detriment of food crops, and Bolivians sometimes have to import the quinoa they need to feed themselves. Soybean cultivation, initiated by the Mennonite colonies in the 1950s, is now the country's main exportable agricultural resource (80% of its soybeans are exported). To give you an idea of its meteoric growth, since the 2000s, profits from its sales have risen from $300 million to over $1,100 million. The environmental consequences caused by this intensive monoculture are deforestation and forest degradation, soil impoverishment, reduced agricultural yields and, of course, the disappearance of ecosystems and their biodiversity.
Water pollution and melting glaciers
Industrial activities (mining and metallurgy) result in air, water and soil contamination. The presence of open-air storage of mining waste, in the form of slag heaps, contributes to the dissemination of metallic pollution into rivers and lakes. The situation of Lake Titicaca, the largest freshwater reservoir in South America, is also of concern, since it is now contaminated by both industrial and domestic water discharges. What's more, towards the end of 2015, Bolivia's second largest lake, Lake Poopó, which covered about 3,000 km², was home to more than 200 species of animals and had served as the home of communities for thousands of years, evaporated completely. This large body of fresh water, which once covered an area larger than Luxembourg, is now more like a desert than a lake.
Moreover, the water level in the dams is decreasing in a worrying way. According to the statistics platform Worldometers, renewable water reserves per capita have decreased by about 65% over the last 50 years. Ongoing warming is also resulting in melting Andean glaciers and worsening periods of drought, raising the specter of water shortages and food insecurity. In November 2016, La Paz found itself without drinking water services for several weeks due to institutional miscommunication. Overnight, its residents were forced to ration their drinking water supplies. Of course, the melting of the glaciers was one of the main causes of this crisis (it should be known that only a few years ago, the Paceños were still skiing on the Chacaltaya glacier, at the gates of La Paz...).
Ambivalence towards ecological issues
Faced with the country's ecological challenges, Bolivia has responded with ambivalent actions, particularly during the presidency of President Evo Morales (2006-2019). In 2010, following the partial failure of the Copenhagen climate conference, the Bolivian president took the initiative of an alternative movement and initiated the World Conference of Peoples against Climate Change, in the city of Cochabamba, famous for having won the fight against the deprivation of its water in 2000. The Bolivian Constitution recognizes the concept of "Pachamama" or Mother Earth, considered as the whole of the interrelated and dynamic living (of which we are part). The Law on the Rights of Mother Earth of 2010 enshrines the protection of the "Pachamama", and imposes rights and obligations on the State. However, the State, under the same presidency, has also encouraged the development of coca monocultures associated with hydroelectric projects in protected areas, in disregard of the forest and indigenous peoples. A 2016 law allows more deforestation for agricultural activities, and the 2017 coca law expands the authorized area for coca cultivation. This cultivation generates the use of pesticides and contributes to soil depletion and the erosion of biodiversity (significant decline in bee populations noted), not to mention the need for water, and illicit uses when coca is transformed into drugs, a process that requires the use of chemicals, with health and social impacts throughout the chain. The management of the crisis related to the fires of the summer of 2019, which ravaged nearly one million hectares of forest in the Bolivian Pantanal, was also strongly criticized by a whole section of the population.
One of the current environmental issues is the exploitation of lithium in the Salar de Uyuni, a vast salt desert, a habitat for certain species of birds and a tourist attraction in the country. Bolivian lithium, which today represents 65% of the world's deposits, is a metal that is used in the manufacture of smartphones, laptops, bicycle batteries and electric cars. The exploitation of lithium in the Salar of Uyuni, which has begun, could result in the depletion of the water resource necessary for local communities and other living species, by pumping the water tables. At the same time, the lack of environmental awareness among the population does not help in water management and the fight against climate change, in a country where water is becoming increasingly scarce in both rural and urban areas. Water shortages in La Paz have led to rationing in recent years.
