Managing Bolivia’s Forests

Left to right: Diego Gutierrez, Executive Director, Sociedad Boliviana de Derecho Ambiental, and Bern Johnson, Executive Director, E-LAW U.S.

Where the eastern slope of the Andes meets the Amazon rainforest is the small town of Ixiamas, Bolivia. The surrounding area and nearby Madidi National Park hold tremendous biological diversity. Unfortunately, short-term slash and burn farming threatens to destroy the forests around Ixiamas.

Bern Johnson,E-LAW U.S. Executive Director, traveled to Ixiamas in October to work with grassroots attorneys at the Sociedad Boliviana de Derecho Ambiental (Bolivian Environmental Law Society – SBDA). SBDA attorneys Diego Gutierrez and Mauricio Aguilera are working with local villagers who want to manage local forests sustainably so that they can support their families for generations to come. Bern participated in a workshop with representatives of local communities who are trying to harvest timber sustainably and prevent the destruction of these rich forests.

Ixiamas workshop participants

Bern says, "People walked and rode their bikes for miles over dirt roads to come and work with us. I was impressed with the people’s commitment to take good care of the forests. Giving local people a real stake in the forests may be the best way to protect them."

E-LAW U.S. thanks the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for its generous support of E-LAW’s work in Bolivia.