Bolivia is burning. A state of national emergency has been declared after 4 million hectares of forest and cropland burned this year, surpassing 2021’s record of 3.4 million hectares. These fires spread from chaqueo, the intentional use of fire to clear land for crops, often by impoverished smallholders. Drought conditions cause these fires to spread, and agribusiness is happy to move in and put burnt lands to work. The Bolivian government has declared a five-year moratorium on the conversion of burnt public lands to croplands; this is a welcome gesture, but insufficient to counter the structural dynamics at play. A negative trade balance has eaten away government reserves, leading to a liquidity crisis. The official response is to aggressively expand agricultural exports, enabled by converting forests to cropland through chaqueo. In the face of such powerful feedback loops, despair is understandable, but a powerful force for change has emerged.
This past spring, NEL-i completed pre-feasibility work toward the development of a landscape-scale forest restoration program in Bolivia. The primary barrier at that time was an article in Bolivia’s Mother Earth Framework Law (2012), prohibiting the use of carbon finance. In June, Bolivia’s Constitutional Tribunal overruled this article on the grounds that it was “A serious affront to the essential core of environmental law, as well as the rights to freedom of enterprise and commerce.” A wave of project developers has expressed interest and Bolivian authorities are now working to put together a legal framework that will channel this development to the benefit of the Bolivian people and the planet. Bolivia may soon find itself in a position to select from a range of potential projects designed to stop the devastation by protecting intact forests, restoring fertility to fire-ravaged and otherwise degraded lands, and providing a better livelihood to those who protect forests than those who threaten them.
The department of Beni, in the heart of the Bolivian Amazon holds over 5 million hectares of tropical forest facing severe deforestation pressure from the nexus of uncontrolled fires and agricultural expansion. Unsustainable farming practices leave depleted soils in their wake. Sustainable production models bring attractive results: economically, ecologically, and socially, but are daunting to implement as restoring the fertility of the soil requires significant capital investment as well as a period of several years before revenues exceed those of the extractive model. The use of carbon finance to enable this transition is a perfect example of Additionality: the necessary investment could not be financed without the revenue stream of carbon credits. The ultimate goal is the development of viable, self-sustaining productive systems. Climate finance is the tool making this possible.
Since completing pre-feasibility, our world-class team on the ground has continued advancing feasibility work and program pre-design. We have the relationships in place with key stakeholders and across levels of government that will ensure the first choice of available lands. We are working to identify where we can have the greatest impact.
We envision a forest carbon program combining Conservation, (Re)Forestation, and Improved Forest Management across tens of thousands of hectares. The species composition is fire-resistant and provides multiple income streams for communities and landowners. This approach overcomes the limitations inherent in the conventional siloed strategy of applying a single project activity in patches across a region. By addressing ALL drivers of deforestation in a contiguous landscape, permanence can be maximized and leakage eliminated.
They say ‘to go fast, go alone; to go far, go together.’ We will take the time to do this carefully, respectfully, and effectively. We are looking for partners on this journey. Please reach out if you would like to help make this happen.
CONTACT ME!
Luc Lendrum, Head of climate innovation
luc.lendrum@nel-i.com
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