Seven vicunas eating short, yellowish grass, snowy mountains in background. — Vicuñas in the protected area of Apolobamba, the Bolivian wetlands. © Omar Torrico-WCS

Capacity Building to Reduce the Impact of Mining in the Polylepis Forests of Apolobamba, Madidi, and Pilon Lajas Protected Areas of Bolivia

Grantee Name: Wildlife Conservation Society

Hotspot: Tropical Andes
Location: Bolivia
Amount: $158,245
Dates: Jun 2016 – Dec 2018
Keywords: Capacity building, Extractive industries, Indigenous People, Livelihoods, Pollution, Protected Areas, Waste management

Mitigate the environmental impacts of the legal mining that occurs inside three protected areas in Bolivia—Polylepis Forests of Apolobamba, Madidi and Pilon Lajas—by promoting the application of best practices. The project will assess current mining practices in the protected areas, build the technical capacity of miners and park guards to adopt and monitor best practices, support pilot projects for environmentally sustainable mining, and strengthen local management committees to oversee these operations.

Strategic Direction :

3 Promote local stakeholder engagement and the integration of social and environmental safeguards into infrastructure, mining and agriculture projects to mitigate potential threats to the KBAs in the seven priority corrido