Sustaining forests and livelihoods
How community organisations in Chiquitania are advocating for locally led regulations to protect their lands, forests and livelihoods.
The departmental legislative assembly votes to pass the Departmental Law on the Restoration of Environmental Functions in Degraded Natural Landscapes (Photo: copyright Gobernación Santa Cruz)
The Río Blanco community and ADAPICRUZ
In the Chiquitania region of Bolivia, forest producers, rural communities and Indigenous Peoples are already facing the impacts of climate change.
Supported by the Forest and Farm Facility (FFF), two producer organisations – the Río Blanco Indigenous community and ADAPICRUZ (Asociacion Departamental de Apicultores de Santa Cruz – Association of Beekeepers of the Department of Santa Cruz) – have worked with subnational governments to design and implement regulations to protect their forests and livelihoods.
Forest and Farm Facility activities
The Río Blanco Indigenous People live more than 1,200km from the city of Santa Cruz is eastern Bolivia. Comprising over 20 families, they previously relied on subsistence farming.
Technical and financial assistance from FFF supported the Río Blanco community to establish channels of dialogue with the Santa Cruz Governor’s Office through DIRENA (Dirección de Recursos Naturales de la Gobernación – the Directorate of Natural Resources) to support the design of the Departmental Climate Change Strategy (2021–2025). The community was able to incorporate the demands of Indigenous Peoples into the drafting of these regulations, as well as propose concrete strategies for fire prevention and the recovery of livelihoods and production systems.
With FFF support, the Río Blanco community have now also diversified their livelihoods through agroforestry systems, utilising both timber and non-timber forest products.
ADAPICRUZ brings together more than 250 small-scale beekeepers from municipalities and Indigenous Peoples, supporting its members with technical assistance in the production, collection and processing of honey, pollen, propolis and wax, as well as the creation of high-value-added beekeeping products and byproducts for the domestic market and with potential for future export.
Since 2020, ADAPICRUZ has received support from FFF to advocate for the Departmental Autonomous Law for the Promotion and Protection of Honeybees and Melipona.
Significance of impact
The Departmental Climate Change Strategy (2021–2025) that the Río Blanco community helped to draft was enacted in August 2023, while the Departmental Law on the Restoration of Environmental Functions in Degraded Natural Landscapes was enacted in commemoration of World Environment Day in June 2025.
The Law for the Promotion and Protection of Honeybees and Melipona that ADAPICRUZ advocated for was promoted by SEDACRUZ (Servicio Departamental Agropecuario de Santa Cruz – Santa Cruz Departmental Agricultural Service) and enacted by the Departmental Legislative Assembly in May 2025. It aims to promote beekeeping and meliponiculture (the farming of stingless bees) as a driver of economic and environmental benefits.
Conclusion
FFF’s technical and financial assistance has built the capacity of the Río Blanco community and ADAPICRUZ to provide technical inputs and advocate for these local regulations that promote forest restoration and conservation, and protect and improve producers’ livelihoods through the promotion of beekeeping and agroecology.
Further reading
Democratising forest business: a compendium of successful locally controlled forest business organisations. Duncan Macqueen, Anna Bolin and Martin Greijmans (eds) (2015), project report
News: Bolivian producers build skills in climate resilience, Forest and Farm Facility (2025)
News: Combining Indigenous traditions and modern practices to preserve forests in Bolivia, Forest and Farm Facility (2024)
News: Water harvesting: a solution to prevent the migration of an Indigenous community, Forest and Farm Facility (2025)