Amazon Program

WWF began working in the Bolivian Amazon in 1999 with the primary objective of conserving large, representative blocks of Amazon biodiversity and contributing to the improvement of the standard of living of the local population in the mid to long term.

The Bolivian Amazon forms part of the humid forests of the Southwest Amazon, an ecoregion shared by Bolivia, Brazil and Peru and given priority as one of the 200 priority ecoregions worldwide. The Bolivian portion of this ecoregion is located in the northern part of the country in the departments of Pando, Beni (excluding the savannas in the Beni), northern La Paz, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz (excluding the Dry Chiquitano Forest), occupying 24% of the country's surface area.

Conservation Vision and Action Plan:
WWF Bolivia’s intervention in the conservation of the SWA is based on an important legacy of information including scientific research that is applied and used through the development of a Vision for Biodiversity Conservation and Ecoregional Action Plan. The Vision for Biodiversity Conservation gives priority and identifies specific sites in which to implement the conservation schemes. In Bolivia, the most important landscape units are the Amazon Forests in Pando and those in the Iténez-Mamoré Corridor and Amboró-Madidi Corridor.

WWF has involved itself in these three areas through a long term Ecoregional Action Plan that focuses on the creation of a system of protected areas with improved management, promotion of the use of sustainable resources (mainly timber and non-timber products) and the mitigation of threats faced.

Objective:

• Maintain blocks of forests representative of the Amazon biodiversity focusing on three areas: 
  - Amboró – Madidi Corridor (CAM) 
  - Iténez – Mamoré Bi-national Corridor (CIM) 
  - Amazon forests of Pando

Lines of action:

• Protected area management, strengthening institutionally and supporting the management of protected areas within the Bolivian portion of the Southwest Amazon ecoregion, primarily in: Amboró - Madidi Corridor, Iténez - Mamoré Corridor and the Amazon forests in Pando.
  
• Sustainable management of natural resources with local communities, supporting productive activities such as the planning and implementation of sustainable fishing, sound forest management, diagnosis regarding existing resources and identification of potential alternatives for their sustainable use.
  
• Influencing policies, supporting efforts aimed at the declaration of protected areas, conservation policies under ecological corridor criteria, appealing for the national demand of certified products, land use management and land use planning, among others.
  
• Land use planning, supporting tools and processes in land management tending towards guaranteeing a regional planning process that allows for the adequate use of renewable natural resources.