resources of this beautiful garden”.^4 More
recently, the FAO depicts the Bolivian bio-
logical diversity as one of the richest in the
world, reporting that in the Lowlands alone,
seven distinct forest types with 2,700 of dif-ferent tree and shrub species have been
identified.^5The majority of all Bolivians depend to
some degree on the goods and services
that the country’s forests provide. The for-
est dependence is especially notable in rural
areas, where people rely on the forest for a
wide variety of household necessities such
as firewood, construction materials, fodder,
fruits, nuts, medicines, and in some cases
wage labor.^6 Hence, Bolivia’s forestry sector
constitutes an important contribution in
efforts to reduce poverty in Bolivia.^7 A score
of policy analysts along with Bolivia’s gov-
ernment itself, recognise that while forestry
does have a tremendous potential to allevi-
ate poverty, the sector is far from reaching
this potential.^8 These observations beg a
question: What prevents forestry activities
in Bolivia from contributing more to rural
poverty alleviation?Conservation aas ccultural aand ppolitical ppractice
Figure 1.Pristine rainforest in the Bolivian
Lowlands in the early 20thcentury. Photo taken
by P H Fawcett outside Cobija in Pando in 1910.
(Courtesy The Royal Geographical Society).Figure 2.Forestry policy evolution in Bolivia
We would like to argue that forest resources
in Bolivia, whether they happen to exist on
public or private land, are plagued by
ambiguous property rights. As shown by our
brief historical review of forestry policies,
this problem appears related to the failure
of the heavily centralised governmentaladministration, which continues trying to
control Bolivia’s vast territory through a
coercive, top-down governance strategy.In this essay, we analyze the implications of
public policy on forest governance during
three distinct periods of Bolivian forestry