Promoting the Values of Bolivia’s Llanos de Moxos Biocultural Landscape: Part 1
By Rob Wallace | July 3, 2024
Have you ever been fascinated with a particular place on a map? Spent hours wondering what it would be like to visit there? Tried to imagine and picture the place in your mind?
For 30 years the Great Tectonic Lakes of Exaltation (Grandes Lagos Tectónicos de Exaltación) in the vast Llanos de Moxos wetland of Bolivia’s Beni Department were one such place for me. Eight lakes that collectively are second to Titicaca in size for the country, and are immersed in a natural grassland-forest mosaic landscape that represents the largest wetland in the Amazon basin.
The Great Tectonic Lakes of Exaltation are found within a Municipal Protected Area of the same name and are also found within and neighboring the Cayubaba Indigenous Territory. Both occur within the Rio Yata — one of three areas in the Llano de Moxos designated as wetland areas of international importance under UNESCO’s “Ramsar” convention.
In September 2021, I was able to visit those lakes as part of a major expedition involving 20 Bolivian scientists from many of the country’s most important scientific institutions, including the National Natural History Museum; the Institute of Ecology at the San Andres University in La Paz; and the Aquatic Resources Research Center and the Biodiversity and Environment Research Center, both at the Trinidad University in the Beni.
WCS and several local organizations have formed the Llanos de Moxos Working Group, which collectively seeks to promote the conservation of the largest wetland in the Amazon while improving local livelihoods.
WCS and several local organizations have formed the Llanos de Moxos Working Group, which collectively seeks to promote the conservation of the largest wetland in the Amazon while improving local livelihoods through the sustainable management of natural resources and developing certified zero-deforestation and wildlife-friendly organic beef production.
Across five different field sites we registered 269 butterflies, including 238 new records for the Exaltation municipality (15 of which were also new records for the Beni Department); 190 species of fish, including 94 new municipal records and 16 new records for the country; 66 amphibians and reptiles, with 43 new municipal records; 347 bird species, including 12 new municipal records and 3 new records for the Beni Department; and 104 mammal species including 16 new records for Exaltation and 7 new records for the country.
Environmental DNA (eDNA) samples, which are currently under analysis in France in collaboration with the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), will soon further improve the accuracy of those records. The greatly improved species lists will provide information and images for the municipal authorities to incorporate into land-use planning, as well as for ecotourism plans in the area.
The wildlife of this region is not only robust but unique. The lakes themselves are home to populations of pink river dolphins (Inia boliviensis). In the grasslands the fantastical giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) is regularly encountered along with the handsome pampas deer (Ozotocerus bezoarticus). The Llanos de Moxos also provides a home to globally significant populations of marsh deer (Blastocerus dichotomus), maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus), and grassland specialists such as the cock-tailed flycatcher (Alectrus tricolor).
But the Llanos de Moxos are important not only in terms of water, wildlife, and biodiversity. They also hold significant cultural meaning, both now and historically. Today there are 18 different Indigenous groups occupying close to 56,000 square kilometers of territory set aside for them in the Llano de Moxos.
In Exaltation, the Cayubaba Indigenous Council represents 21 Cayubaba and Movima Indigenous communities that accompanied us on the expedition. The community representatives chose the study locations and camp sites, guided the biologists, and participated in the archaeological work led by the University of Bonn.
From an archaeological perspective, the Llanos de Moxos is one of the most important regions in the Amazon basin and is thought to have been home to at least half a million Indigenous People when the Spanish arrived in the area. The landscape itself has been shaped by human presence in the last 10,000 years. In the last two thousand years, populations built various types of infrastructure, such as canals and elevated fields to facilitate cultivation, and mounds for settlements interconnected by roads.
From an archaeological perspective, the Llanos de Moxos is one of the most important regions in the Amazon basin. The landscape has been shaped by human presence in the last 10,000 years.
The Cayubaba Indigenous organization asked us to prioritize a site just south of the lakes called El Cerro, a lonely 40-meter granite outcrop. An archaeological excavation at the top of the outcrop revealed the presence of two 7 x 7 quadrangular structures built with stone walls; the small piece of pottery associated with this architecture is at least 500 years old. Other excavations around the Great Lakes have documented a variety of earthen monuments associated with pottery from the last 1000 years of occupation.
When we returned to Exaltation to deliver 150 copies of our scientific report to the Indigenous communities and the municipal authorities, we knew it would be well-received. On the last day of our expedition, more than 200 people had waited for us at the El Cerro site to thank us and send us off with Indigenous music and dance. The amazing flight back to Exaltation provided a chance to photograph the lakes and some of the archaeological phenomena from above.
During the ongoing process of development of the Management Plan for the Municipal Protected Area, which WCS is also supporting, all inhabitants are being consulted on a significant expansion of its surface, agreed upon with the municipal authorities, indigenous people, and other sectors of the municipality, in part due to the success of the expedition.
The Llanos de Moxos Working Group looks forward to providing technical and financial assistance to this area in the development of sustainable livelihood options in the Indigenous Territory and the Municipal Protected Area. In so doing, we hope to initiate management processes for the Rio Yata Ramsar site and preserve the extraordinary and diverse values of the Llanos de Moxos.
Rob Wallace is Director of the Llanos de Moxos Biocultural Landscape and the Greater Madidi-Tambopata Landscape Conservation Programs of WCS in Bolivia.
