Can Bolivia Harvest Its Forests Sustainably?

Deep in the Chiquitana tropical dry forest in southeast Bolivia, Noine Picanerai stands on a dirt road that cuts through lush woods. The 50,000-acre plot looks like a protected reserve. But, notes Picanerai, a woodsman in his 70s, “My people live off selling these trees.” Indeed, despite the forest’s pristine appearance, it’s a logging concession run by an indigenous Ayoreo community. The project, along with dozens of similar forest management programs across the Amazon region north of Bolivia, are making sustainable logging a reality instead of an oxymoron. “We aren’t like the other guys,” Picanerai says with a toothless grin. “We make sure the forest stays standing.” Read Article