Nature pictures from Bolivia

These images are from the tropical lowlands of eastern Bolivia, including the Chaco forest and San Miguelito ranch. The photos were taken in 2019 by Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler.

The images are organized into galleries, the most popular of which are presented below.

The bottom of this page includes recent conservation news from Bolivia.

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Mongabay investigation of sketchy forest finance schemes wins honorable mention (11 Jun 2025 19:00:30 +0000)
The Matsés in Peru were one of the Indigenous communities targeted by the finance schemes. Image by Mongabay.Mongabay contributor Glòria Pallarès earned an honorable mention in the 2025 Trace Prize for Investigative Reporting, announced May 28, for her investigation into how Indigenous communities in Peru, Bolivia and Panama were misled into handing over their rights to millions of hectares of forest. The January 2024 investigation, “False claims of U.N. backing see Indigenous […]

Strategic planning for development in the Pan Amazon (06 Jun 2025 15:49:56 +0000)
- The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) was conceived to broaden Environmental Impacts Assessments and consider long-term, indirect and cumulative impacts, as well as alternative development scenarios.
- In the early 2000s, these SEAs generated a great deal of interest and were applied to several high-profile projects in the Amazon.
- Beyond looking at impacts, they evaluated impacts on forests, the expansion of secondary roads, potential real estate speculation, agriculture and deforestation and how they would affect biodiversity and livelihoods.


Climate strikes the Amazon, undermining protection efforts (05 Jun 2025 14:53:56 +0000)
Greenpeace Brazil conducted an aerial survey in southern Amazonas and northern Rondônia to monitor deforestation and fires in July 2024. Photo © Marizilda Cruppe / Greenpeace.Fires raged across the Amazon rainforest in 2024, annihilating more than 4.6 million hectares of primary tropical forest—the most biodiverse and carbon-dense type of forest on Earth. That loss, which is larger than the size of Denmark, was more than twice the annual average between 2014 and 2023, according to data released last month by […]

Tropical forest loss hit new heights in 2024; fire a major driver in Latin America (21 May 2025 22:02:04 +0000)
- A new dataset and analysis released by World Resources Institute finds global tropical forest loss jumped to a record high in 2024, with 6.7 million hectares (16.6 million acres) worldwide.
- In total, the area of forest lost in 2024 is nearly the size of Panama.
- For the first time, fire, not agriculture, was the primary driver of primary tropical forest loss, with Latin America badly hit.
- Non-fire related tropical forest loss also increased, by 14%.


Bolivia expels members of fake nation Kailasa over Indigenous land lease scandal (16 May 2025 17:11:39 +0000)
- A Hindu religious sect tried to enter Ecuador, Paraguay and Bolivia by lying to authorities and Indigenous leaders.
- The self-proclaimed nation, the United States of Kailasa, operates from different parts of the world and offered high sums of money to Indigenous leaders in exchange for lands to exploit or conserve for carbon credit projects, say legal experts.
- One contract was a lease for 1,000 years, to be renewed perpetually, allowing the self-proclaimed nation to exploit the natural resources in the leased territory.
- Authorities announced the beginning of an investigation into land trafficking and criminal organization against the people involved in the contracts of the perpetual leasing of Bolivian land in favor of the self-proclaimed nation of Kailasa.


Study unveils mystery of monkey yodeling — and why humans can’t compete (16 May 2025 14:11:36 +0000)
- Researchers found that New World monkeys can produce extreme yodeling-like sounds by rapidly switching between their vocal folds (for low tones) and specialized vocal membranes (for high tones), achieving frequency jumps up to 12 times greater than humans can manage.
- Scientists conducted their research at Bolivia’s La Senda Verde animal refuge, using recordings and electroglottographs on live monkeys.
- Humans lost these vocal membranes during evolution, trading vocal gymnastics for more stable speech that’s easier to understand.
- The complex vocalizations likely help monkeys manage social relationships and grab attention in the rainforest.


Bolivian communities push back against foreign-backed lithium projects (17 Apr 2025 12:00:05 +0000)
- In 2024, Bolivia’s state-owned lithium company, signed contracts worth a combined $2 billion with Russian and Chinese companies to mine lithium from Salar de Uyuni in the country’s southwest.
- Local communities already experiencing water shortages say they’re concerned the projects will divert large amounts of freshwater from agricultural lands.
- Experts have pointed out inconsistencies with the contracts, including the lack of environmental impact assessments required under Bolivian law, and the lack of community consultation.
- Bolivia holds an estimated 23 million metric tons of lithium reserves, or about a fifth of the global total, which is in growing demand for production of electric vehicle batteries.


Lithium Triangle mining may strain water sources more than expected, study says (04 Apr 2025 17:13:38 +0000)
- Measuring water availability for lithium extraction can still be unpredictable, especially in the high-altitude Lithium Triangle in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia.
- Current models can overestimate how much water is available, potentially exacerbating scarcity for local communities, according to a new study in Communications Earth and Environment.
- The study suggests using a more accurate model as well as improving transparency and resources for gathering observational data where lithium is being extracted.


Chinese business in the Amazon generates controversy (21 Mar 2025 20:28:01 +0000)
- In recent years, several corruption scandals emerged, involving Chinese companies and businessmen in the Pan Amazon region.
- In countries like Bolivia, they were found to have bribed authorities to obtain benevolent licenses, including the sale of shares in the state-owned YPFB. In Peru and Ecuador, manipulation of the contracting system to benefit the Chinese company was reported.
- Countries that have been more successful in tackling corruption have in place better governance systems, stronger institutions and judicial systems.


Uncontacted Ayoreo could face health risks as Gran Chaco shrinks, experts warn (21 Mar 2025 18:32:28 +0000)
- The International Working Group for the Protection of Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact (GTI-PIACI) visited northern Paraguay to better understand the threats against the Indigenous Ayoreo communities living in isolation.
- The Ayoreo live semi-nomadically between the Paraguayan and Bolivian Gran Chaco, where they’re threatened by deforestation from the expanding agricultural frontier.
- GTI-PIACI called on the Paraguayan government and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to develop more thorough measures to protect the groups and stop deforestation.


This collection of nature photos from Bolivia is part of Mongabay's library of 150,000-plus images. Other images may be available beyond those displayed on this page.

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