Qualla: Chiquitano Dry Forests

Chiquitano Dry Forests: Introduction

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Grullab, CC BY-SA 3.0. Every winter, the Chiquitano dry forests shed their leaves. Across a vast sweep of eastern Bolivia and western Brazil, trees that spend the wet season in dense green canopy strip themselves bare, letting light flood to the forest floor. It is one of the largest tropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregions on the planet, and unlike the Amazon rainforest to its north -- which commands global attention and fundraising -- the Chiquitano forests burn and shrink with far less notice. In 2019, fires consumed 1.4 million hectares of this forest, an estimated twelve percent of its total area, and much of that burning was deliberate.

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Image: Grullab | CC BY-SA 3.0

Chiquitano Dry Forests: A Forest of Two Faces

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jorge Vallmitjana, Public domain. The Chiquitano dry forests occupy a transitional zone between the Amazon basin and the drier Gran Chaco to the south. Their character shifts with soil and elevation. On well-drained, nutrient-rich soils, the soto association dominates: soto trees, curupau, momoqui, morado, roble,...

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Image: Jorge Vallmitjana | Public domain

Chiquitano Dry Forests: The Chiquitano and Their Land

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Every-leaf-that-trembles, CC BY-SA 4.0. The ecoregion takes its name from the Chiquitano people, who have lived in this landscape for centuries and whose political struggle for territorial control has shaped Bolivian land policy. In 1990, responding to indigenous demands, the Bolivian government issued a decree designa...

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Image: Every-leaf-that-trembles | CC BY-SA 4.0

Chiquitano Dry Forests: The Fires of 2019

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mauroguanandi, Public domain. The legal protections proved fragile. Earlier in 2019, the Bolivian government issued a decree supporting the clearance of forest lands in both the Chiquitano and Amazon regions for cattle ranching and soya production. Between August and November of that year, fires swept through...

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Image: Mauroguanandi | Public domain

Chiquitano Dry Forests: What Remains Protected

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ruditaly, CC BY-SA 4.0. A 2017 assessment found that 55,861 square kilometers -- about 24 percent -- of the Chiquitano dry forest ecoregion falls within protected areas. The most significant of these is Noel Kempff Mercado National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site at the ecoregion's northeastern edge,...

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Image: Ruditaly | CC BY-SA 4.0