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LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
BOLIVIA
MDG7
Progress Towards Environmental Sustainability
Cochabamba
BOLIVIA
Santa Cruz
Due to Bolivia’s weak institutional capacities, environmental management
Sucre
was not a priority in the country’s development agenda. Consequently,
previous development efforts did not improve the environmental situation,
which has been marked by increasing degradation and erosion of
CHILE
PARAGUAY
soil, deforestation, loss of biological diversity and environmental pollution.
ARGENTINA
In addition, Bolivia faces a number of other challenges to environmental
sustainability including: lack of environmental conscience and of political will, inadequate technical capacities, unsustainable
modes of use and exploitation of natural resources, insufficient financial support, and international market conditions
and payment of external debt.
In Bolivia, 47.5% of the national territory, which comes to 1.1 million km 2 , is covered by forests. By 2002, 21 protected areas had been
created, which corresponds to 16% of total territory in comparison with 1% in 1991.The total national carbon dioxide emissions for
the year 2002 were estimated at 62.614 Gg. (of which 89% are related to the change in soil use and forest agriculture, 10.5% to the
energy sector and 0.46% to industrial processes for cement production).
The need for regulating access to land and to natural resources, for preventing environmental impact, and for ensuring bio-diversity
conservation and environmental quality, has led to the approval of a series of legal norms that constitute a general framework
for environmental management. The recognition of indigenous
and farmers’ rights over their territories and traditionally occupied
lands as well as over natural resources, is one of the aspects on
which progress has been made in the clearest manner. 1
QUICK FACTS
CURRENT PORTFOLIO BUDGET
Total UNDP-GEF and Co-Finance: $13,098,000
Total UNDP and Co-Finance: $145,140
Total MPU and Bilateral: $587,083
Total: $13,830,223
PERU
La Paz
BRAZIL
Cumulative Total ODS Phased-Out:
26.0 ODP tonnes
SPOTLIGHT
Innovative Financing Mechanism Provides Renewable Energy 2
Many rural communities in Bolivia are beyond the reach of central power grids, and lack access to energy
in the home for cooking, lighting and education, water pumping for irrigation and drinking water,
agricultural processing, and lighting for health centers and educational institutions. This lack of access
to energy is one of the contributing causes of poverty in these rural communities.
Establishing a foundation for the sustainable use of solar power in rural areas is one way of both reducing
the dependency on expensive traditional fossil fuels and expanding access to power in remote areas. In Bolivia,
the $8.2 million GEF-supported Rural Electrification with Renewable Energy project is using solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and
micro-hydroelectric plants to electrify over 3,400 rural homes and jump-start longer-term support for renewable energy systems
in rural areas, to improve the quality of life in those areas and provide greenhouse gas benefits. Funding is channeled
through rural microcredit institutions, which evaluate and qualify potential credit clients and pay supplier companies on behalf
of the beneficiaries.
This innovative financing mechanism is proving so successful that the government is adopting it in other areas of rural development,
such as the financing of tractors for small-scale farmers. The Government is also enacting the proposed elimination of
import duties on PV panels. With a reduction in the rate now being applied to these panels of over 40%, this is opening the way
for a potential market transformation.
ENERGY
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