Rios Blanco y Negro Wildlife Reserve () is a departmental protected area in Ñuflo de Chávez and Guarayos provinces in the northern part of the

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

n department of Santa Cruz. It covers portions of the municipalities of Concepción, Ascención de Guarayos, and

Urubichá Urubichá is a small town in Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands ...

. The reserve covers 1,400,000

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

s. As a

wildlife reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologi ...

, according to the General Regulation on Protected Areas (''Reglamento General de Áreas Protegidas''), its purpose is "the protection, management, and sustainable use of

wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animals and uncultivated plant species which can exist in their natural habitat, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introdu ...

." Living in the vicinity of the protected area are the native Guarayo and

Chiquitano The Chiquitano or Chiquitos are an indigenous people of Bolivia, with a small number also living in Brazil. The Chiquitano primarily live in the Chiquitania tropical savanna of Santa Cruz Department, Bolivia, with a small number also living in ...

peoples, who engage in such diverse traditional activities as berry picking,

subsistence A subsistence economy is an economy directed to basic subsistence (the provision of food, clothing and shelter) rather than to the market. Definition "Subsistence" is understood as supporting oneself and family at a minimum level. Basic subsiste ...

hunting and fishing, and farming. Their products are sold at the local market.

Purpose

The reserve was created August 10, 1990, under Ministerial Resolution 139/90, with the purpose of "preserving biological diversity and promoting sustainable use of natural resources in an ecological and economically sustainable manner."

Ecological characteristics

The reserve lies in a transition zone between the

Chiquitano dry forests The Chiquitano dry forests is a tropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion in Bolivia and Brazil. The ecoregion is named for the Chiquitano people who live in the region. Setting The Chiquitano dry forests cover an area of . The ecoregion lies eas ...

and the Madeira-Tapajós moist forests of the

Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...

, with elements of both ecoregions, and it is of great conservational importance owing to its rich biodiversity. The San Pablo and Blanco Rivers are rich in nutrients and cause

seasonal flooding A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and polar ...

in the areas closest to the plains, forming the so-called "

Várzea forest A várzea forest is a seasonal floodplain forest inundated by whitewater rivers that occurs in the Amazon biome. Until the late 1970s, the definition was less clear and várzea was often used for all periodically flooded Amazonian forests. Althoug ...

", which regulate the rise and fall of the water levels. The natural flood cycle in the reserve zone is essential to the maintenance of the

Baures Baures is a village in Iténez Province, Beni Department, in northern Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, includin ...

and Magdalena wetlands in Beni, in northern Bolivia. Wood is extracted from the forest for construction,

resin A resin is a solid or highly viscous liquid that can be converted into a polymer. Resins may be biological or synthetic in origin, but are typically harvested from plants. Resins are mixtures of organic compounds, predominantly terpenes. Commo ...

fiber Fiber (spelled fibre in British English; from ) is a natural or artificial substance that is significantly longer than it is wide. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. The strongest engineering materials often inco ...

s, fruit, and

medicinal plants Medicinal plants, also called medicinal herbs, have been discovered and used in traditional medicine practices since prehistoric times. Plants synthesize hundreds of chemical compounds for various functions, including Plant defense against h ...

, which are of great important to the local population and for animals, such as the marayaú palm (''Bactris major''), the chontilla palm (''Bactris gasipaes''), ''Ampularia'' sp., big-leaf mahogany (''Swietenia macrophylla''), and the cusi palm (''Attalea speciosa''), among others.

Threats

The primary threats to the integrity of the reserve are: *

illegal logging Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase, or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a p ...

*indiscriminate hunting and fishing * agricultural advancement onto woodlands The activities cause degradation of the forest's structure, leading to the loss of species of animal and plant life.

References

External links

* Gobierno Autónomo Departamental de Santa Cruz * Hoy Bolivia {{DEFAULTSORT:Rios Blanco Y Negro Wildlife Reserve Wildlife sanctuaries of Bolivia Nature reserves in Bolivia