| Deforestation and the custom of using fires to clear land for farming and cattle production beyond the agricultural frontier are causing serious environmental problems in Bolivia. This case study examines the interaction of factors traditionally related to deforestation such as soil type, and distance to roads and markets, and adds an analysis of forest fires and road types. It also looks at how certain land use controls might mitigate loss of dry Chiquitano forest in rural eastern Bolivia.; Distance to market, distance to road, road type and fire had a statistically significant relationship to deforestation. Soil type, pipeline right-of ways, and market type did not. Care must be taken when interpreting these results, since pipeline right-of-ways function as roads in this study area, which are positively related to deforestation. Deforestation was lower in regions of privately held forestry concessions, municipal forest reserves, and national integrated management areas, suggesting these may be good tools in preventing forest loss.; The questions for this research are driven by the information needs of conservation practitioners. The results provide evidence about region-specific drivers of deforestation. These factors might also be useful in guiding conservation and management practices in other tropical forested area in Latin America, as road building is common development practice and the induced impacts from construction can threaten biodiversity. While roads are linked to deforestation, much care must be taken to distinguish between proximate (e.g., roads) and underlying causes (e.g., macroeconomic policies) that might be related to deforestation. |
