Counterproductive effect feared from Bolivian land-clearing law

A new law ostensibly intended to curb land clearing and increase food production may in fact spur deforestation in Bolivia, where forests already are falling at a rate of 350,000 hectares (865,000 acres) annually, critics say. Under previous legislation, agro-industrial farms could be assessed fines for illegally deforesting and could have their unused lands expropriated for distribution to the landless. Under the new legislation, known as the Law to Support Food Production and the Restitution of Forests and signed into law in January, farm operators pay reduced fines and can keep all their lands as long as they reforest 10% of illegally cleared land and put all of their idle holdings to work. The goal, says President Evo Morales, is to boost land under... [Log in to read more]

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