The Great Soy Expansion: Brazilian Land Grabs in Eastern Bolivia | Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy
▻http://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/4434
Since 1990, the area of cultivation in Santa Cruz has expanded from slightly over 400,000 hectares to more than two million hectares in 2011. Since 2005, a new round of Brazilian land investments in Santa Cruz has emerged, this time for ranching. There are currently approximately seven million head of cattle in Bolivia, three million (or 40 percent) of which are located in Santa Cruz. Pressure is mounting to expand both soybean production and ranching operations into forested areas.
According to the Regulatory Agency for the Social Control of Forests and Lands, 3.3 million hectares of forest have been illegally deforested in Bolivia between 1996 and 2009 alone. The environmental degradation of the eastern lowlands has caused several micro-climatic changes in the region, increasing water stress. In the Santa Cruz province of Velasco, water is often controlled by cattle ranchers who dam brooks to water their cattle. Indigenous farming communities living downstream claim that their streams no longer run except in very wet years, leaving them without water.