Bolivia: Major Landscapes and Ecosystems

Submitted by The Catt-Trax2 Team on Thu, 2006/12/21 - 2:30pm.

Report prepared by Krystal Brennan and Jen Sarchuk, students in BCIT’s Fish, Wildlife and Recreation Program.

Bolivia is one of the ten most diverse countries in the world. The government has a protected areas plan that protects 10% of country and a variety of ecosystems. The Andes Mountains in Bolivia have a 6,542 metre-peak, while Blackcomb Mountain has a peak of only 1,562 metres. That’s over four times as high!

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) maintains a list of the 200 most significant ecoregions, and ten of these are in Bolivia and its neighbouring countries. The ten ecoregions are: Beni Savannas, High Andes Lakes, Central Andean Yungas, Southwestern Amazonian Moist Forests, Chiquitano Dry Forests, Cerrado Woodlands and Savannas, Pantanal Flooded Savanas (seasonally flooded wetlands), Central Andean Dry Puna, Upper Amazon Rivers and Streams, and the Brazilian Shield Upper Amazonian Rivers and Streams.

The Bolivian Government has a National System for Protected Areas (SNAP) with twelve ecoregions including:

  • the humid montane cloud forest (Yungas)
  • semi-humid low montane forest
  • sub-Andean mountain range
  • sub-Andean Amazon forests
  • interior Andean dry forests
  • High Andean plateau (Puna)
  • Chaquena
  • Chaco
  • Amazon forest
  • Chiquitano dry forest
  • Pantanal flooded savannas
  • Cerrado, and Amazon flooded savannas.

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