Long-term human adaptation and environmental degradation in the Bolivian tropics

For more than two months during the summer of 2019, uncontrollable fires spread over the Amazon and adjacent areas, threatening the world’s biodiversity and oxygen supply. Added to this is the destruction of archaeological sites. Solutions to such problems will require a concerted multidisciplinary research, multinational cooperation, and a long-term understanding of the anthropogenic effects on these environments. This research will focus on reconstructing the history of human occupation and adaptation strategies in the tropical lowlands of Bolivia, reconstructing the human population dynamics in the southeastern tropics of Bolivia using a long-term perspective.

The project team used different methodologies and techniques from geology, remote sensing, archaeology and anthropology to reconstruct long-term human-environment population dynamics. This information will inform long-term processes of indigenous economic adaptation, mobility, resilience and political reorganization. It will also inform how modern indigenous populations have reacted to increased global warming, anthropogenic fires, forced deforestation and territorial displacement processes. As we establish a dialog across disciplines, we expect to refine our methodology accordingly.