VICTORY
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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Bolivian
Timber Company Sells Lands to Park
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Conservation
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.
###RELAYED
TEXT ENDS###
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