Search Climate Insights Directory

The report examines how agricultural expansion and the proliferation of decentralized water storage, such as 'atajados' (artificial ponds), are altering the hydrologic balance in Bolivia's Chiquitano dry forest. Using remote sensing and field verification, researchers identified significant volumes of unmapped surface water storage and increasing groundwater extraction, which may reduce baseflows and threaten downstream ecosystems. The document argues that current hydrologic models lack this decentralized data and recommends improved regulation and monitoring of water use to support long-term planning.

In response to the 2019 'megafire' in the Chiquitano Forest, which burned approximately 3.6 million hectares, the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) developed a pilot framework to help Bolivian policymakers use watersheds as the primary management unit for land and water planning. The framework combines remote sensing data on land use and fire from 2001 to 2019 with watershed maps and water-related indicators, such as groundwater recharge areas, to identify vulnerable zones. While current restoration plans in the Santa Cruz Department focus on socio-economic and governance actions, they lack water resource components. SEI's tool distinguishes between fires in intact forests versus those in areas already converted to agriculture and identifies northern Chiquitania as having the highest groundwater recharge potential. Future work involves adding criteria like ecosystem relevance and population size, and developing a regional-scale model using the Water Evaluation And Planning (WEAP) tool to quantify the hydrological impacts of forest cover loss.