After Potosí and Sucre, I bussed 20 hours or so to arrive at Apa Apa Forest Reserve outside La Paz, which was an utterly heavenly experience after the hubbub of the tourist track and the cities which lay upon it. Apa Apa is the first ´real forest´(meaning something other than eucalyptus) I´ve encountered in Bolivia – partly because I´ve been above 3500 meters most of the time, but also because everything below that altitude, where forest could theoretically exist, has been cut for farmland. Thus, this reserve is an anomaly, and I´m told it is conserved partly because it contains the headwaters of a sizeable river – in fact it contains upwards of 5 headwaters, which provide this precious resource to the surrounding communities. Despite this fact, local farmers have been attempting to take this land from the Portugal family, claiming that they have no land, and that it is arable, so it should not sit idly while their families suffer. I heard this story three times in my time there from two hacienda owners, and once from a caretaker at the reserve, and it is obvious that this struggle has loomed large in the minds of friends and employees of the reserve.
One man I met – Vladimir, a Czech Bolivian and friend of the reserve´s owners – told me about the greed of those who are attempting to claim the land – how they drive nice trucks and already do fine growing coca in the hills. He says the government of Bolivia, like others in Latin America, generally sides with farmers in land disputes. This is reminiscent of the sad history of the Emberá reservation in Panama´s Darien province, which has been steadily whittled down to a mere 7,000 acres from its original 50,000 by illegal logging and farming, a practice which has been encouraged and facilitated by a government sympathetic to farmers instead of conservation.
It is alarming, yet understandable that the farmers do not see watershed conservation as fundamental to their livelihoods. Though I have noticed that most riparian areas are left with a tiny tract of forest where I´ve been, it´s by no means a constant and it may not be enough to avoid droughts in once rainy regions. Victor, an assistant on the reserve, told me that many of the surrounding communities are experiencing this currently, which he attributes to the rampant deforestation. He claims that many of the rain clouds in this area begin above the reserve and travel no further – deterred by the arid air surrounding it. Apparently, various meetings between the reserve owners and the area communities have remedied the unrest and pressure directed at Apa Apa, through educating them about the function of the reserve performs, but communities uninvited to such meetings continue causing headaches. One pueblo, for instance, attempted to siphon an immense portion of the water supply into a holding tank destined for their ¨future use.¨ Ramiro and his crew had to go destroy the infrastructure so that the supply wouldn´t rapidly dissipate, a fate that would threaten the health of the forest and the humans near it.
I hope that it was simply ignorance and not greed or malice that prompted the actions of this pueblo, but who knows? I´m sure water disputes have played a leading role in conflicts in this region – especially in the high and dry Andes. I think ecology should become a primary subject in the schools here if they are to avert more conflicts and understand how human actions can affect climate on a local and global scale. Even if the latter is more controversial, the former is undeniable, and knowledge about it could lead to wise decisions about water conservation and drought avoidance.
This story serves as a microcosm for many of the political battles that have colored Bolivia´s history. The tension between hacendados (European land owners from colonial times) and indigenous farmers has existed since the 16th century. However useful this reserve (which is a 200 year old hacienda) may be at this point, it still is a symbol of a bloody and hurtful past, and is therefore controversial. More on this later...
From here, I headed to Peru on another 20 hour bus adventure to surprise my lady at 4 A.M.
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