BIODIVERSITY AND CULTURE TO PROTECT IN THE SAN MATÍAS ANMI

ANMI SAN MATÍAS PROTECTS THE BEST REPRESENTATIVE EXAMPLES OF THE CHIQUITANO FOREST, CERRADO, AND PANTANAL ECOREGIONS OF BOLIVIA

The San Matías Integrated Management Natural Area (ANMI) is the second largest protected area in Bolivia, created on July 31, 1997, under Supreme Decree Number 24734. Located in the easternmost part of the department of Santa Cruz, it covers 2,918,500 hectares, encompassing the provinces of Ángel Sandoval, Germán Búsqueda, Chiquitos, and Velasco, within the municipalities of San Matías, Carmen Rivero Torrez, Puerto Suárez, Puerto Quijarro, Roboré, San José de Chiquitos, and San Rafael. This territory is also occupied by two Indigenous Peasant Territories (TIOCs): the Ayoreo community of Guaye-Rincón del Tigre; and Pantanal CIRPOS (Central Indigenous Reivindicativa de la Provincia Ángel Sandoval). Economic activity is based on private livestock farming in the north that supplies the local and departmental market, agriculture that is introduced as monocultures, forestry activity with the production of charcoal and use of wood, industry, fishing, tourism, among others.

This nationally protected area is characterized by a dry season in winter and a rainy season in summer. It belongs to one of the three major river basins in Bolivia, the Río de la Plata basin, which includes the sub-basins of the Paraguay, Curiche Grande, Cáceres, and Tucavaca/Otuquis rivers. The San Matías Integrated Management Natural Area (ANMI) is considered vitally important due to its wetlands, which contribute to the biological, hydrological, and ecological stability of its ecosystems. These ecosystems include the Bolivian Pantanal, which was declared a Ramsar Site on September 17, 2001. This designation aims to conserve and promote the wise use of wetlands through national action and international cooperation, in order to achieve sustainable development worldwide.

The region is home to 16 different vegetation types, as well as a diverse array of mammals, including the caiman, giant otter, marsh deer, agouti, tapir, and jaguar. Among the birds that can be seen are the rufous-collared sparrow, harpy eagle, kingfisher, and blue macaw, the latter being considered the symbol of the region.

The natural pressures characteristic of the area are desertification, water stress (more demand for water than the amount available) and reduction of endemic species. Despite being an important conservation site, anthropogenic pressures (the impact of human activities on the environment) are severely affecting its condition, such as agricultural activity, overfishing, overgrazing, water pollution from mining, deforestation, and forest fires. The latter threat affected 3.62 million hectares between August and October 2019 (El Deber Digital Newspaper, World section, published 12/16/2019). In 2020, fire scars were observed on 116,000 hectares (MONGABAY Digital Newspaper, 10/08/2020). And this year, from July to July 13, approximately 7,500 hectares have been affected (El Deber Digital Newspaper, Santa Cruz, Environment section, 07/13/2021). Currently, forest fires are increasing the damage to our biodiversity, with almost 11,000 hectares consumed by them. This is the second fire of July, reports the Director of the Protected Area.

To conserve this life system, which protects the best representative samples of the Chiquitano Forest, Cerrado, and Pantanal ecoregions of Bolivia, it is a priority to promote economic, productive, and local subsistence actions and alternatives that are linked to the conservation of the place, considering that if the San Matías ANMI continues to degrade, the more than 25 communities that inhabit the Protected Area will become more vulnerable to losing their quality of life and their territory.

Note: Association for the Conservation and Research of Biodiversity and Sustainable Development – SAVIA (Source: ANMI San Matías Management Plan, Media and SERNAP)