VICTORY
Bolivian Timber Company Sells Lands to Park
10/3/99
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY
Conservation International has brokered in Bolivia the protection of
111,200 acres from a privately owned logging concession, and the
conversion from multiple-use parkland into permanent protection for
another 700,000 acres. In so doing they have made the bioregion more
connected and protected critical corridors. Conservation
International continues to develop and pursue innovative conservation
strategies, this time in the Bolivian Tropical Andes, one of the most
biodiverse regions in the World. Congratulations to Bolivia, its
peoples and CI.
g.b.
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: BOLIVIAN Timber Co. Sells Lands to Park
Source: Environment News Service, http://www.ens.lycos.com/
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: October 1, 1999
WASHINGTON, DC, October 1, 1999 (ENS) - Conservation International
has brokered the protection of a 111,200-acre privately-owned logging
concession and convinced Bolivia's government to convert an adjacent
588,802 acres of multiple-use park land into permanent protection
within the Madidi National Park. The deal protects 700,000 acres of
rain forest in Bolivia's Tropical Andes, one of the most
biologically-rich regions in the world.
The combined land area nearly equals the size of Rhode Island and
forms a conservation corridor that links protected areas of the
national park that were previously divided by the concession and the
multiple-use zone.
Conservation corridors allow wildlife to migrate freely and are
important in maintaining the biological integrity of an ecosystem.
Conservation International is working to link Madidi to a larger
corridor that will stretch from Bolivia to Venezuela.
The timber concession was originally granted in 1992 to Fatima, Ltd.
in the multiple-use zone of the park. Earlier this year, just as
timber extraction was about to begin, Bolivia's National Park Service
(SERNAP) approached Conservation International to help prevent the
logging.
Conservation International negotiated with the company, which agreed
to turn over the concession to the park in exchange for $100,000 to
cover operations costs.
The arrangement was made possible by a new fund created by the
Washington, DC based conservation group to respond to urgent threats
to globally-valuable ecosystems. "The Tropical Wilderness Protection
Fund allows us to respond immediately and decisively when threats
erupt in the most critical biodiversity strongholds," said Peter
Seligmann, CEO and chairman of Conservation International. "This
success sends the important message that conservation can compete
with threats such as logging and other development."
The fund was first used in 1998 to protect nearly four million acres
of Suriname's pristine wilderness that was about to be logged.
The Bolivian government created Madidi National Park in 1995 after
Conservation International's Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) surveyed
the previously undocumented region to determine its ecological
importance. The analysis revealed a high level of diversity in plants
and animals, including more than 400 bird species, and large
populations of tapirs and spider monkeys.
The park covers nearly 4.46 million acres and was originally
separated into two sections by a multiple-use zone. The multiple-use
zone will remain, but the conservation corridor reduces its size by
over a half a million acres. Madidi National Park shares its
boundaries with three other Bolivian protected areas and two
protected areas along the Peruvian border.
While the conversion of the concession ends all legal logging in
Madidi National Park, threats to the park still include illegal
logging, oil extraction, mining, and colonization.