A researcher from ICTA-UAB expresses in Nature his concerns about the Bolivian Pachamama

The Bolivian government has recently announced both a decree opening the country’s protected areas to hydrocarbon exploration and plans to construct a deeply-contested highway crossing the Isiboro Secure National Park and Indigenous Territory (TIPNIS).

A correspondence in Nature written by Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares, from ICTA-UAB, and Ricardo Rocha, from the University of Lisbon (Portugal), calls on the Bolivian government to re-evaluate the coherence of their environmental policy and support the legitimate work of Bolivian NGO in protecting the nation´s exceptional Nature.

In his correspondence, Fernández-Llamazares urges the Bolivian government to reconsider its international environmental commitments and highlights the pivotal work of Bolivian civil organisations in protecting the nation’s exceptional biological and cultural diversity. He expresses his concerns about the approval of a decree allowing hydrocarbon exploration inside the country's protected areas. The government has also given the green light for the construction of a controversial highway across TIPNIS National Park.

 “As scientists working in South American forests, we are concerned that these political developments override the country's international commitments and undermine the conservation of its unique biological and cultural diversity”, explain the researchers in their correspondence. “Several national and international groups, including both activists and scientists, have been voicing their oppositions to these government trajectories. The dispute  has now reached a critical stage with President Evo Morales, once-known as Bolivia´s foremost defender of Pachamama (“Andean Earth Mother”), threatening to expel any NGO or foundation that attempts to obstruct natural resource exploitation in the country”.

“Bolivian environmentalists are no strangers to clashes with politicians on land management and resource extraction, but these measures are the latest in a series revealing the Bolivian government's record of policies that neglect its international environmental commitments”, states Fernández-Llamazares, to explain the reasons that have led him to write the letter to this renowned journal.