Madidi National Park - The Apolo-Ixiamas Road Project

The Apolo-Ixiamas Road Project

Another of the main threats against Madidi is the construction of the Apolo-Ixiamas road. This is an old demand from some local politicians and communities from the Altiplano, who want to colonize the park for timber and agriculture exploitation. However, independent studies from the NGO Conservation Strategy Fund have shown that this project is not a good development alternative for the region (Fleck et al., 2006a, 2006b). The project is economically unfeasible and would induce significant deforestation within the protected area (Fleck et al., 2006b).

Environmental losses caused by the road project could threatened the current and future conservation and tourism activities in this protected area, which generate significant economic benefits to the region (Fleck et al., 2006a; Malki et al., 2007). Alternative investments such as improving the road that connects Apolo to La Paz (Peñarrieta & Fleck, 2007) and directing the road investment towards social investments such as health and education (Fleck et al., 2006b) have much more prospects of improving local quality of life while maintaining the important environmental services provided by Madidi.