Cover photo: Biologists Alfredo Fuentes and Javier Quisbert collect numerous species collections late into the night in the Chunkani locality of Madidi National Park.
“As Bolivians, we must be aware that flora, plants and ecosystems are a fundamental part of our life; starting with basic issues such as the provision of water and food, but they are also an important part of our cultural identity (…) The big problem is that, in recent years, precisely because we do not know or value this wealth, we are destroying it,” says biologist Alfredo Fuentes.
As an associate researcher at the Missouri Botanical Garden and the National Herbarium of Bolivia, Fuentes has worked with plants for over 25 years. For the past two decades, he has worked in Madidi National Park doing inventory and ecological studies. One of the achievements of his work – in which they discovered more than 250 species of new plants – was that the park is ranked first in the world in terms of diversity.
Photo: Orthaea madidiensis, one of the 250 new species recorded during inventories in Madidi National Park, which belongs to the blueberry family. Alfredo Fuentes.
Fuentes is responsible for updating the Bolivian Plant Catalogue. In 2014 he published a list, which is constantly updated, with 15,000 native plant species. “The estimate for a complete list of plants in Bolivia is between 17,000 and 20,000. We still have quite a bit to go. And inventory is just the starting point for understanding our biodiversity,” he emphasizes.
With concern, he mentions the case of Madidi, one of the most biodiverse parks in the world, which contains a high percentage of Bolivia’s flora. “It has been opened to mining activities. And this is going to put it at serious risk,” he warns.
Faced with this scenario, the concept of Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA) emerged. For this researcher, these are very particular because they are not necessarily conservation areas. From his perspective, they are “like flags” that one places based on threatened and restricted-range species, as well as other species of conservation concern. They indicate that a certain place needs some form of protection and management.
“Based on these elements, the attention of the local authorities is drawn to a site, who can then decide how best to manage the area so that these species are conserved. And the fact that these species are conserved means that particular ecosystems are conserved,” he emphasizes.
Several large ecosystems converge in Bolivia. According to Fuentes, two of the most species-rich regions are the Andes and the Amazon. In addition, this country has high Andean, Chaco and Cerrado vegetation. All this mixture of biographical influences makes the composition and richness of species very particular in the Bolivian territory.
But despite this natural wealth, Bolivia also has great challenges. “To begin with, we don’t even have the plant inventory completed. We are lagging behind in that regard. Then, policies in the last few years have practically not considered the natural wealth of the country.
Finally, he warns that inventory initiatives that support conservation have declined in recent years due to funding issues and restrictions in national regulations. He hopes that with initiatives like the KBA, they will be reactivated, and we will gain a better understanding of our plants and ecosystems, which are a fundamental part of our lives.
Photo: Alfredo Fuentes collects a branch of the guitarrero tree in the locality of Tipuani (department of La Paz) to press the species and deposit it in scientific collections of herbariums, which function as libraries of the natural heritage of the countries.