CONSERVATION AND USE OF THE ECOLOGICALLY TROPICAL FOREST, A DIFFICULT TASK FOR POOR COUNTRIES

The part of the forest under study lies in the Department of Cochabamba, Bolivia; this, like many other sections of the Amazone forest already exhibits problems such as climatological unbalance and loss of animal and vegetal species in addition to soil loss. These are made worse as a result of the expansion of the agricultural frontier, needed by migrating farmers for their subsistance.

The Bolivian Government has established a "five year ecological pause" to allow organisms concerned to propose mechanisms and strategies for Preservation and Conservation in different regions of the country. In the meantime, however, the inhabitants need to subsist, as they have been doing, using forest resources.

Within the above framework, it has been proposed to undertake combined action in the planned handling of forest resources and agriculture in the area with the exploitation of the aromatic and medicinal flora of the undergrowth - a vegetation characterised by its capacity for fast regeneration. This involves the study of mechanisms of reproduction of wild species so as to contribute to the preservation of its variability and to its spreading to new areas. Simultaneously, there are studies under way that seek to achieve soil recovery through vegetal cover and thus stop erosion processes.

This work plan is economically feasible because the species mentioned can be given industrial uses at a small scale, depending on market demand, while ensuring sustainable agricultural balance.