By Sophie Bertazzo
January 26, 2026
4 small towns take giant steps to protect the Amazon
With support from Conservation International, local people are driving the rapid expansion of conservation across Bolivia.
BIODIVERSITY
7 min
Four brand-new protected areas. Nearly a million hectares.
After years of work, a surge of new protections in Bolivia came together in just a few short weeks. These new conservation areas stretch from the peaks of the Andes to the sun-drenched lowlands of the Amazon — more than 900,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) in all, about the size of Yellowstone National Park — and were shaped through years of collaboration with Conservation International. Together, they protect critical habitats, strengthen Indigenous lands and connect wildlife corridors for jaguars and other species.
But this wave of protection didn’t come from a national park office. It happened because four local communities decided the time had come.
“The past was deforestation,” said Ericka Cortez, a community leader involved in the creation of an Indigenous Amazonian reserve. “The present is conservation.”
Here’s a look inside the four new protected areas and the local people who made it happen.
Gran Paitití Municipal Park: A corridor of clouds
Forested valleys in Gran Paitití Municipal Park.
At 83,825-hectares (more than 207,000 acres), the park offers a vital migration corridor for wildlife moving between the lowlands of the Amazon and the Andean highlands, and a key link in the vast chain that connects Bolivia’s Madidi and Cotapata national parks.
While the region’s gold-laced soils once shaped pre-Hispanic civilizations — and now draws mining — local people see the true wealth of the Amazon not in gold, but in water. Gran Paitití’s natural springs sustain the population of the village of Mapiri, and shelter critically endangered frogs found nowhere else in the world, their jeweled colors as vivid as rainforest orchids.
Los Palmares de Villa Nueva: A forest economy
The woody shell and seeds of a Brazil nut.
The towering Brazil nut trees define the new Villa Nueva protected area. Each year, when the heavy, cannonball-sized fruits fall, families fan out through the understory to gather them — an ancient practice that still anchors the local economy today. The Brazil nut harvest provides up to 91 percent of household income, turning the forest itself into both pantry and paycheck.
Preserving that livelihood means protecting the forest that makes it possible. And here, that forest is vast: Los Palmares de Villa Nueva stretches across 190,000 hectares (more than 472,000 acres) of the Bolivian Amazon, covering nearly 68 percent of the municipality that designated it.
This expanse is home to more than 2,400 animal species and forms a crucial bridge between neighboring protected areas, giving jaguars, tapirs and endangered giant otters room to move along forest paths and winding rivers. That connectivity, said Eduardo Forno, who leads Conservation International–Bolivia, is the backbone of effective conservation.
“The true strength of Los Palmares de Villa Nueva lies in its ability to connect territories and lives,” Forno said. “By linking with other protected areas, it ensures that the Amazon continues to function as a vast ecosystem where species can move freely.”
By keeping the forest intact, families are protecting the very system that has long protected them — a resilience rooted in the oldest trees of the Amazon.
Guardián Amazónico Pacahuara: An ancestral homeland
The understory and forest floor of Guardián Amazónico Pacahuara protected area.
Deep in the Amazon, along slow-moving rivers and alluvial plains, lies the ancestral home of the Pacahuara people. Here, old-growth forests still show the patterns of an ancient way of life: the routes traveled by the Pacahuara, the river bends they relied on and the groves shaped by generations of use.
The new Guardián Amazónico Pacahuara protected area, spanning 540,000 hectares of intact Amazon rainforest, honors the Pacahuara people and their historic and sacred connection to the forest. Although their traditional language and distinct communities have dwindled over time, descendants identifying as Pacahuara continue to live in the region today.
The reserve protects habitat for more than 2,500 species, including endangered Amazon river dolphins, giant otters, spider monkeys and jaguars, along with iconic birds like the Harpy eagle. For rural and Indigenous families who live around the protected area, the forest also remains a source of sustenance: Brazil nuts, açaí and other forest fruits continue to support local economies, linking conservation with livelihoods just as they have for generations.
“Our municipality conserves nearly 80 percent of virgin forests, and that is a source of pride. With the new law, we guarantee the protection of our territory,” said Mayor Samuel Heredia.
Serranías y Cuencas de Palos Blancos: A vital watershed
A three-coloured harlequin toad in the montane forests of Bolivia.
Storms that build in the Bolivian Andes sustain life in the foothills of the Palos Blancos.
As summer rain moves through cool and shadowed valleys, it runs down rocky slopes, into sun-warmed citrus groves and forests dotted with cacao, coffee, and plantain. Runoff that gathers in Alto Beni River below, winds past dozens of villages along its banks.
The newly designated Serranías y Cuencas de Palos Blancos Municipal Park protects the heart of this water system. The park spans more than 88,000 hectares (217,000 acres) of ridges and valleys that catch, filter and release the rains of summer. It links directly to the Mosetén Indigenous Territory, ensuring that the people who depend on these waters help guide their protection. These forests also shelter rare species like the spectacled bear and the Andean cock-of-the-rock — a scarlet bird that is an icon of South America’s cloud forests.
Families here farm in ways shaped by the forest.
Cacao and coffee grow beneath taller trees, using shade that keeps soils moist and reduces erosion on steep slopes. This form of agroforestry helps maintain canopy cover, supports wildlife and protects the waterways that downstream communities depend on.
These practices, carried out across the foothills, reinforce the same system the park protects: forested slopes that catch rain, recharge aquifers and steady the flow of the Alto Beni.
In Palos Blancos, conservation is tied to everyday work — the crops people grow, the forests they maintain and the water they rely on.
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