WFT researchers in Bolivia will have opportunities to work in a variety of lowland forest types (1000-3000 mm precipitation per year) and with a variety of stakeholders including large scale commercial concession holders, community-based forest management micro-enterprises, and indigenous groups. Sets of replicated, large-scale (20-27 ha) silvicultural treatment plots currently being established by UF students and collaborators in Bolivia provide a unique resource for exploring many issues related to tradeoffs associated with sustained timber yield. Stand maps and other mensurational data, along with detailed histories of management interventions and costs, will provide a strong foundation for research and training in dry, moist, and wet forests in Bolivia and will serve as a critical source of data for model development and testing.
While an ecological research program already exists, complementary work on the social impacts of changing forest use is sorely needed. From a biological conservation perspective, a principal challenge for forestry in Bolivia arises from the history of human use of its forests. Archaeologists have identified massive pre-Columbian land modifications in the highlands, and more recently in the flooded savannas (Erickson 2000), but little is known about the history of human occupation of what are now extensive and silviculturally mature forests. Widespread regeneration failures of the principal timber tree species (e.g., Swietenia macrophylla, Cedrela odorata, Amburana cearensis, Hura crepitans, and Ficus glabrata) after logging at a range of sites, even after implementation of silvicultural treatments (e.g., canopy gap enlargement), may be related to the historical uses of the forests. Abundant charcoal and pottery shards in the soils of these forests suggest a history of intensive disturbance (recently determined radiocarbon dates for two soil charcoal samples were 330 and 430 years B.P.). Understanding and incorporating this history into silvicultural practices may be essential for their success. Perhaps due to this history of disturbance, on-going studies reveal few deleterious impacts of present-day logging on wildlife (Fredericksen 1998, Fredericksen et al. 1999).
Recently enacted legislation in Bolivia creates a uniquely enabling environment for forest conservation and forest management. Nonetheless, research is needed on the incentives and constraints faced by different social groups to manage forests or convert them to other uses. Ongoing stand-level experimental work in Bolivia provides ample opportunities to explore questions related to the influence of social and economic variables on forest management and conservation because plots are being established within a variety of property, human resource and capital-availability regimes, ranging from industrial concessions to indigenous community forests. As the world’s leader in managed tropical forest area under internationally-recognized “green” certification by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Bolivia also offers a unique opportunity to test hypotheses related to the efficacy of certification as a forest conservation strategy.