Latin America

February 22, 2023



Mennonites, often searching for new land to expand their simple, rural lifestyles, have founded hundreds of communities across Latin America over the last century. In forested areas, particularly the Amazon, that’s become a problem when the communities clear trees to make room for agriculture — sometimes thousands of acres at a time.

Bolivia has felt the brunt of the impact in recent years. Mennonite soy farms have been a main driver of deforestation in the Beni and Santa Cruz departments, where vulnerable areas like the dry forest biome of Chiquitanía are already suffering from drought and fires caused by climate change.

“What’s happened over the last thirty years is a consolidation of the Mennonites, which is also transforming the forest,” said Daniel Larrea, science and technology program coordinator with Conservación Amazonica in Bolivia.

Recently released satellite data shows that soy plantations were responsible for over 900,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) of deforestation between 2001 and 2021, or a land mass roughly the size of Vermont, according to two new reports from NGO Amazon Conservation. Mennonites were responsible for around a quarter of it, or 210,980 hectares (521,344 acres), with activity increasing in the last five years.

More:
https://kleanindustries.com/resources/market-analysis-researcph/bolivia-has-a-soy-deforestation-problem-its-worse-than-previously-thought/

(In the last five years, Bolivia citizens (enormous native population) were compelled to see their government suffer a Trump-backed coup by racist christo-fascists European-descended right-wingers, then attempt to regain footing with an actually elected indigenous president who has bowed to pressure from the fascists.)