According to this Mongabay article, “a rise in illegal activities and plunge in tourism revenue are some of the problems that protected areas across Latin America are facing due to COVID-19 lockdown measures. Experts say the suspension in human activity marks a welcome break for the parks and a unique opportunity to carry out studies about the changes ecosystems are experiencing during this time.”
“The Bolivian government’s decision to close all national parks in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March was supposed to stop the spread of the coronavirus. But it’s also had unwanted consequences for the wildlife and for the financial viability of the very parks themselves, not just in Bolivia but across Latin America.
Within days of the March 16 announcement of the closure of all 22 protected areas across Bolivia, authorities seized a boat in Madidi National Park. On board, they found a shipment of fish caught illegally in the protected area and a tapir (Tapirus terrestrial), a species categorized as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
“The boat was intercepted. We are concerned that people from the surrounding communities may enter the national park to hunt and fish to supply their family with food,” said Marco Uzquiano, the director of Madidi National Park.”
Uzquiano said he feared this necessary closure was not enough to stop the criminal groups that profit from the illegal sale of wild plants and animals taken from within protected natural areas. The closure of protected areas by the Bolivian government is similar to measures adopted by most countries in the region to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Besides illegal activities, parks in Bolivia and elsewhere are suffering from a cut in revenue from tourist visits; in some countries, visitor receipts account for up to 40% of the parks’ annual budget. There is also uncertainty about the future of projects developed by Indigenous communities in both protected areas and buffer zones.”
Maikol Melgar, the executive director of Bolivia’s National Protected Areas Service (SERNAP) said there are only 300 park rangers overseeing surveillance of 22 protected natural areas throughout the country. Around 200 rangers were working inside the protected areas when the closure was ordered, and have remained quarantined there. The rest will remain in their homes for the duration of the closure.
For now, rangers only carry out patrols in emergencies. Otherwise, they operate checkpoints.
Melgar said he’s worried that the closure of protected areas could have an economic impact. He said revenue from tourist visits accounts for between 35% and 40% of the annual budget. “We still cannot quantify the impact because the duration of the closure is still uncertain, it can be a month, three months, or the whole year.”
According to Melgar, as the public treasury covers the needs of the outstanding personnel within the reserves, the situation is not yet critical from a financial standpoint. For this reason, they have not “thought about reducing personnel,” he added.
Madidi National Park’s Uzquiano said the ecotourism initiatives of communities living within the parks, as well as other community projects, will be impacted because they won’t generate income. “The Indigenous population will seek means to subsist. People will enter the park to carry out illegal activities,” he said. The government has not yet proposed any solutions.”
Mongabay also noted that “Beyond economic problems and threats…the coronavirus crisis allowed protected areas to rest, especially those ecosystems most frequented by tourists.”
“Nature returns to take its place as human activity shifts,” said Iván Arnold, the director of Bolivia’s Fundación Nativa, on the halt in activities. He called the respite an “irreplaceable and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to look at the changes that will occur in nature.”
“Arnold said this period can be treated as an experiment to assess what happens as protected natural areas across Latin America and the world shut down to human activity. “Sometimes nature gives us unthinkable lessons and this is one of them. A lesson and a call to change our way of acting. If we do not acknowledge that, other situations like this will arise,” he added, referring to the wildlife origins of the coronavirus.”