Tucabaca Valley Municipal Wildlife Reserve comprises more than 2,640 square kilometers (1,020 square miles) of semi-arid forest and tropical savannah in the heart of southern Bolivia’s Chiquitania region. However, this protected area and surrounding habitat is being lost to industrial agriculture and associated fires and infrastructure development. The Tucabaca (also referred to as “Tucavaca”) reserve was the first of its kind in Bolivia when it was created 24 years ago and is situated in the municipality of Roboré in the department of Santa Cruz, near the border with Brazil. It acts as a refuge for wildlife of the Chiquitano dry forest ecosystem, which connects South America’s two largest biomes: the Gran Chaco and the Amazon rainforest. Tucabaca is also inhabited by several Indigenous communities, who for millennia have protected and relied on its wetlands and rivers, forests and grasslands. But today, Tucabaca’s natural wealth is in danger. Felled trees lie in a clearing inside Tucabaca Valley Municipal Wildlife Reserve. Image courtesy of the Movement in Defense of the Tucabaca Valley. Roads and a bridge in the midst of a protected area Eder Santibáñez, coordinator of the Movement in Defense of the Tucabaca Valley, told Mongabay Latam that on June 23, he and a delegation of 10 others carried out an inspection of the Tucabaca Valley and reserve, which yielded discouraging results. The delegation’s first stop was in the area surrounding the Mennonite colony of El Roble. There they were confronted with a scene they described as alarming: piles of felled…This article was originally published on Mongabay
Início » Communities band together to save besieged reserve in Bolivia
