- Bolivia has created four new protected areas covering 907,244 hectares (2.2 million acres) of Amazon lowlands and Andean highlands, creating corridors intended to improve wildlife migration and maintain forest-based economies for local families.
- Because the creation of nationally protected areas has slowed in Bolivia in recent years, conservation groups have looked to departmental and local governments for help protecting the rainforest.
- The new protected areas help strengthen wildlife corridors between larger national parks.
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Bolivia has added nearly a million hectares to its protected areas over the last several months, an effort by local governments to link Indigenous territories with nearby national parks and strengthen ecological connectivity.
The four new protected areas cover 907,244 hectares (2.2 million acres) of Amazon lowlands and Andean highlands, creating corridors intended to improve wildlife migration and maintain forest-based economies for local families. The effort was led by local officials and Indigenous communities, who planned and approved the protections.
“In many cases, the municipalities have now protected more than half their territories, a remarkable commitment that shows how local leadership can deliver durable conservation that strengthens communities and outlasts political cycles,” Eduardo Forno, vice president of Conservation International-Bolivia, which supported the projects, said in a statement.
The initiative was also backed by the Andes Amazon Fund, Rainforest Trust, Conservación Amazónica, and the Swedish Embassy and EU.
In recent years, Bolivia has had some of the highest deforestation rates in the world, driven by agribusiness, cattle ranching and fires, among other factors. In 2025, it lost 1.8 million hectares (4.4 million acres), according to Global Forest Watch, a satellite monitoring initiative. The year before that, it lost around 490,000 hectares (1.2 million acres).
In the early 2000s, Bolivia made a push to expand nationally protected areas. But since then, efforts have tapered off. In the last five years, only two nationally protected areas have been created or upgraded: El Choré National Park in Santa Cruz department and El Cardón Natural Park and Integrated Management Area in Tarija.
As a result, many conservation groups started looking to local and departmental governments to expand protected areas and meet Bolivia’s goals toward the global 30×30 initiative, in which 30% of the land and water are protected by 2030.
Local and Indigenous communities were on board with the idea.
Residents in the municipality of Santos Mercado, in Pando department on the northern border with Brazil, were concerned about deforestation from mining and logging. It was starting to create water scarcity and impact Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) harvests, a staple of the local economy. They created the Guardián Amazónico Pacahuara Integrated Natural Management Area in October 2025, protecting 544,103 hectares (1.3 million acres) of the Amazon.
With the designation, the municipality has now protected around 82% of its territory, Conservation International reported.
The new management area will help protect the endangered Bolivian river dolphin (Inia boliviensis) and vulnerable harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja), among other species.
“That’s where the initiative was born,” Ericka Cortez, president of the Santos Mercado Municipal Council, told Mongabay. “The concern to conserve the environment, to conserve our Amazon, our forest and more than anything: the beauty of our Brazil nut.”
There were similar needs in the Mosetén Indigenous Territory, where communities grow cacao, coffee, plantains and other agricultural products but were also feeling pressure from unplanned settlements and the encroaching agricultural frontier. The 73 communities, located in La Paz department, helped create the Serranías y Cuencas de Palos Blancos Municipal Park and Integrated Natural Management Area, spanning 88,006 hectares (217,467 acres).
The management area, officially established in January, sits next to the Indigenous territory and is designed to help protect freshwater sources like rivers and streams needed for agriculture, which can only survive if the forest remains standing.
The endangered clown frog (Atelopus varius). Image by Daniel Alarcón/Conservation International-Bolivia
In October, local officials also established the 191,310-hectare (472,737-acre) Los Palmares de Villa Nueva Integrated Natural Management Area in Pando department, home to the endangered giant otter (Pteronura brasiliensis). The area was similarly under threat from settlements and agribusiness.
And that same month, local communities established the 83,825-hectare (207,136-acre) Gran Paitití Municipal Park and Integrated Natural Management Area in the municipality of Mapiri in La Paz department. The area is known for illegal gold mining that has occasionally led to violent clashes with authorities. Deforestation and pollution from mercury are common in the municipality, Mongabay has previously reported.
With the creation of the management area, around 56% of the municipality is now protected, Conservation International said.
The area is also designed to act as a migration corridor between Madidi National Park and Cotapata National Park. It’s home to critically endangered endemic frogs like the Telmatobius verrucosus and Allobates mcdiarmidi and endangered glass frogs like the Nymphargus bejaranoi and N. pluvialis.
Forno explained to Mongabay that the goal is to create a conservation “mosaic,” connecting multiple protected areas where human population density is low and biodiversity rates are high.
“There are large areas that aren’t very populated,” Forno said. “Those areas have normally been linked to high biodiversity, especially in the northwest Bolivian Amazon, on the border with Peru and Brazil.”
Moving forward, Forno said local jurisdictions have very limited resources and will need to look for long-term financing to ensure the integrity of the new protected areas, possibly through debt-for-nature swaps and protected area permanence programs.
The protected areas will also rely on the revenue generated from sustainable development projects for Brazil nuts, açaí, fishing and other commodities.
For the Guardián Amazónico Pacahuara Integrated Natural Management Area, Cruz told Mongabay that a management committee made up of government officials, the private sector and civil society groups is being developed. The committee is also developing a reforestation plan.
“[The goal] is to have sustainable management within these places, and thus conserve our Amazon,” she said.
Banner image: The rainforest in Santos Mercado, in Pando department on the northern border with Brazil. Image Gabriela Villanueva/Conservation International-Bolivia.
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