This Spanish-language blog post by the Fundacion Solon discusses the impact on nature of the El Bala and Chepete dams. Chepete will flood 677 square kilometers (km2) of Amazonian forest in one of the most biodiverse regions of Bolivia and the world. El Bala will flood 94 km2. To understand how large an area this is, the urban area of La Paz is only 149 km2.
Green house gas emissions are an additional concern. Chepete alone is expected to generate 30.9 million tons of carbon dioxide, with an additional 4.3 from El Bala.
The government and ENDE have sought to minimize the impacts by pointing out that a small percentage of protected areas will be affected. For example, in the case of Chepete, they only mention the flooding of 100 km2 within Madidi and Pilón Lajas and remain silent regarding the other 577 km2 of forests that will be flooded on land that is adjacent to the protected areas.