Centro
de Ecología Aplicada Simón I. Patiño
P.O.
Box 169
Santa Cruz - Bolivia
Tel.:+591-3-3223737/8
Fax: +591-3-3223736
Dissemination
Department
P.O.
Box
1023
Cochabmba - Bolivia
Tel.:+591-4-4220674
Fax:+591-4-4220674
Situated about 15 km south of the town of Santa Cruz in the Bolivian tropics, on the fringe of the famous sand dunes and close to the "Lomas de Arena" regional park, this Centre offers ecological farming models for practical application.
In an area threatened with desertification due to intensive monoculture farming, a profitable model farm run on ecological principles has been established with a view to restoring the land and consolidating the soil affected by erosion. In addition, a system of reafforestation is being tried out in the desert part of the property which lies next to the agricultural area.
The
Centre is also responsible for managing the "Lomas de Arena"
regional park, which is exemplary for several reasons. Far from
being a virgin area requiring conservation, this park of 14,000
hectares, which forms the last bulwark against erosion of the town
of Santa Cruz, is a typical example of ecological management of
a territory comprising virgin forest, agricultural farmland and
a tourist attraction - the sand dunes. Incorporating all types of
areas needed |
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for
the maintenance of a healthy environment, it prefigures the future
topography of all regions selected for conservation. |
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With
its adequate means, the Centre provides regular air surveillance
of the area, as well as Chiquitanía as a whole, a region
famous for its Jesuit "reductions". In that area, the
Foundation also runs an estate of several thousand
hectares, on which it is developing another ecological model
farm whilst aiming to preserve the immense virgin areas of the property. |
The Centre also operates as a place for meetings and exchanges of views on practical ecology issues at departmental and national levels, in collaboration with international experts.
Dissemination Department
This
department, which complements the Centre's practical activities, sets
out to inform the population and increase its awareness of problems pertaining
to the relationship between human beings and an environment that is all
too often exploited recklessly, without any global vision.
The department's activities are specifically focused on disseminating
ecological ideas through the main media - the press, radio and television
- as well as on conducting an interdisciplinary dialogue on environment-related
topics.
Alongside other reference works, it produces two specific publications:
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- Bolivia Ecológica, a quarterly review each of whose issues deals with an essential environmental problem;
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