Environmental issues in Bolivia

Environmental issues in Bolivia include deforestation caused by commercial agriculture, urbanization, and illegal logging, and biodiversity loss attributed to illegal wildlife trade, climate change, deforestation, and habitat destruction. Since 1990, Bolivia has experienced rapid urbanization raising concerns about air quality and water pollution.

Bolivia has the 13th largest national share of the world's forest cover. As of 2015^[update], its primary forest cover was 36.2 million hectares, the 13th largest national area in the world and representing 2.8% of the worldwide total. Bolivia also has the seventh largest amount of tropical rainforest. Overall, forests made up 51.4 million hectares or 46.8% of the country's total area as of 2013. Both primary forest and overall forest cover have been declining in recent decades.

Due to mostly cattle ranching, mechanized cultivation and small-scale agriculture, Bolivia lost approximately 200,000 hectares of rainforest per year between 2006 and 2010. Demand for Bolivian agricultural products has risen in part due to the integration of Bolivian agriculture into international commodity markets. Brazilian companies and farmers in particular have made large investments giving them increasing control and influence over Bolivian land, which has resulted in deforestation. The Tierras Bajas region in eastern Bolivia, which was a site of a World Bank Development project, has seen some of the greatest deforestation due to the establishment of industrial scale soybean plantations largely by foreign landowners.

Colonization schemes have also contributed to deforestation in Bolivia. Since the 1960's, the Bolivian lowlands have seen large scale colonization by rural nationals from the Andean region as well as America and Japan. This has largely been encouraged by the Bolivian government. Inexpensive land and fertile soil were additional driving factors for these immigrants who contributed to organizing commercial farming causing deforestation to increase by 60% from the 1980's to the 1990's.

In recent years, the growth of coca-leaves has become widespread in Bolivia. To create space for these large plantations, large areas have been deforested via slash and burn operations. An estimated 4 hectares of forest need to be cleared for each one hectare of land needed for the cultivation of coca.

Logging, which is often done illegally in Bolivia, and forest fires are additional causes of deforestation. Illegal logging has occurred even in the Isiboro Secure National Park and Indigenous Territory (TIPNIS) which is a designated state park. Concerns about the impact of illegal logging on deforestation were so serious that in 2011 Bolivian protestors were able to halt the construction of a highway that would have increased access to the TIPNIS territory. Bolivia's highway network remains underdeveloped, restricting access to specific forested areas. However, as the country progresses, expanded road construction might not only lead to deforestation but also enhance access for illegal loggers to these forested regions.

The final figure (2.8%) represents the percentage of worldwide total in 2015.

Source: MMAyA-OTCA, summarized by Andersen et al 2016:S1.