A Bolivian environmental group staged a protest outside the National Protected Areas Service (Sernap) offices in La Paz this month, looking to boost public awareness of a surge of illegal gold mining in highly prized Madidi National Park. The protest was held Feb. 17 by the Coordinating Committee for the Defense of Mother Earth (Codma), a nationwide association of conservationists, scientists, ecotourism operators, environmental-law practitioners and other green advocates. It was prompted by reports in January that at least nine new illegal mining sites had been established in the northwest Bolivian park, considered one of the most biodiverse reserves in the world. Park guards and local activists were the first to sound the alarm in January, publishing images on social media of men on tractors, bulldozers and trucks removing trees to create a mining camp inside the park on the banks of the Tuichi River. Witnesses reported that the... [Log in to read more]