The eternal potato – La papa eterna

Nicole Pinto, El Deber: Chuño: The truth behind the eternal ‘potato’ Its production can take several days, between which the feet will be used as part of the process, resulting in a food that can last up to 10 years properly stored. Chuño is an ancestral food of Andean origin, widely consumed throughout the area…

In Bolivia, Indigenous groups fear the worst from dam project on Beni River

by Iván Paredes Tamayo on 11 January 2022 | Translated by Max Radwin, Mongabay: More than 5,000 Indigenous people would be impacted by flooding from the construction of two dams in Bolivia, according to Indigenous organizations and environmentalists. Successive governments have mulled the Chepete-El Bala hydroelectric project for more than half a century, and the current administration of…

‘Only the rains will stop it’: Bolivia forest fires hit protected areas

by Yvette Sierra Praeli on 7 January 2022 | Translated by Sydney Sims, Mongabay: In the first 10 months of 2021, forest fires in Bolivia razed nearly 2.5 million hectares (6.2 million acres) in the department of Santa Cruz alone, exceeding the figure for the whole of 2020. In Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s biggest department, 58% of the burned…

Jukumari – Spectacled bear

Los osos andinos en el bosque seco de Tarija. | Cortesía Los osos andinos en el bosque seco de Tarija. | Cortesía Geraldine Corrales Arandia, Los Tiempos: Wines and honey to support the conservation of the Andean bear Jukumari bear conservation is a job that requires a lot of support across the country. The program…

Forests for Sale: How Land Traffickers Profit by Slicing up Bolivia’s Protected Areas

by Eduardo Franco Berton Shortly after Bolivia’s Bajo Paraguá Municipal Protected Area was established in February 2021, authorities began receiving reports of invasions and deforestation in and around the new protected area. Local sources say land traffickers are illegally buying up plots of protected land to resell, often repeatedly, to third parties. Mongabay spoke with one…

Let’s stop being reactive – Dejemos de ser reactivos

Editorial, Los Tiempos: Learning from the rains Few natural phenomena are as recurrent in our country as the floods that occur every year in the rainy season, and the way we deal with their consequences makes it necessary to stop seeing the problem as if it were a fatality imposed by designs beyond human control….