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Places We Protect: Bolfor

 

Bolfor.

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Bolfor Sustainable Forest Project

Bolfor Sustainable Forest Project.

The Conservancy is coordinating a sustainable forestry project in the tropical lowlands of eastern and northern Bolivia.

Bolfor.

With 120 million acres of forests, Bolivia has more tree cover than Central America and Mexico combined.

Until recently, however, the country was on its way to being denuded because those forests —which historically covered nearly one-half of the country — were being cut in a haphazard fashion. A limited number of private companies monopolized the industry.

Mahogany, oak, and cedar dominated nearly 90% of the timber trade and were being harvested at unsustainable rates. Companies coveted those types of trees because they were so marketable. Roads gouged out to reach preferred forests further strained the environment by contributing to erosion, water pollution and unplanned settlements.

That devastation prompted the Bolivian government and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to create the Bolivia Sustainable Forest Management Project, known as BOLFOR. BOLFOR was officially launched in 1993 with the goals of protecting Bolivian biological diversity and keeping the country's forests, soils and water healthy by promoting sustainable forestry. Chemonics International, Conservation International, Tropical Research and Development and the Wildlife Conservation Society coordinated that first effort.

BOLFOR II

The first stage of BOLFOR was successful and a second round, BOLFOR II, was approved in 2003. USAID selected The Nature Conservancy to coordinate BOLFOR II. The Conservancy has set up an office in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, to guide the $14 million project.

A six year project (2004-2009),  BOLFOR II seeks to strengthen the Bolivian forestry sector, providing technical and financial support to communities, private business and government – the forest productive chain - as a means to protecting the country’s threatened forests.

Meeting the twin goals of conservation and socioeconomic development is challenging and efforts are focused on encouraging the democratization of access to forest resources and promoting and strengthening the productive chains of sustainably managed timber and non-timber forest products. An important part of this work is the empowerment of communities to sustainably manage their forests by creating jobs and expanding economic opportunities in community-managed forests, including many run by indigenous groups.

Locals are already experiencing results: the indigenous Guarayos community of Cururú has benefited from technical support in forestry and management best practices. In 2006, the community forestry enterprise in Cururú signed a 5-year contract with a major Bolivian timber company. This means a more secure future based on sustainable forest management.  In the first year of the contract, income generated from forest management during 2006 came to nearly $40,000.  A portion of those proceeds went to fund continued forest management operations, but the bulk of it was reinvested in the community. This includes a project to improve housing for the 33 families living in the community. Tiles have been purchased to replace the thatched palm roofs, and the community is awaiting support from local government authorities to acquire cement and other materials necessary to proceed with the home improvement project.

To assess the impact of our activities on biodiversity the Conservancy designed and is implementing a monitoring plan to track the impacts of different levels of forest management activity on various target species. The second year of biodiversity monitoring has registered no extinctions of tree species, and results suggest that biodiversity found in managed Bolivian forests is higher than in non-managed forests subjected to unregulated hunting and logging.

Baseline income and gender studies have been carried out and will guide and help measure the impact and distribution of benefits to communities involved in community based natural forest management.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Rainbow over the Serrania de Santiago peak near Santa Cruz © Steffen Reichle/TNC; Squirrel monkey and offspring © Steffen Reichle/TNC;  Bolfor Sustainable Forest Project © Steffen Reichle/TNC.