In Bolivia’s flooded savannas, ranching aims to boost grasslands conservation

Towering the grass islands of the Llanos de Moxos, the motacú palm (Attalea phalerata) has been around for thousands of years. It’s common across this flooded ecosystem, a mix of savanna and wetlands that spreads over more than 125,000 hectares (about 308,900 acres) in northern Bolivia. Although they are vital nesting sites and source of food for the critically endangered blue-throated macaw (Ara glaucogularis), motacú palms also attract unwanted visitors. Cattle seeking refuge from the water have long consumed these islands’ understories and exhausted their soils, undermining tree development and endangering macaws.

These islands are not the only ones vulnerable. Beni’s grasslands and forests are threatened by intensive grazing and encroaching rice and soy crops. But in the last 15 years or so, efforts to protect ecosystems and more recently, to involve the ranching community in conservation, have increased.  

The Barba Azul Reserve – named after the Spanish name for the blue-throated macaw – spreads over 11,000 hectares (27,180 acres) in the Yacuma province of Beni. It contains a variety of ecosystems, from gallery forests and savannas to wetlands and secondary forests. The reserve was created in 2008 by Asociación Civil Armonia, a bird conservation NGO, which acquired the land to protect the rare macaws, whose populations had dropped dramatically since the 1970s.

In the last few years, the NGO has focused on shifting local ranching practices to become more sustainable and help regenerate native grasses. The department of Beni is the second most deforested in Bolivia, which in the last few years has seen record levels of forest clearing favored by deregulation, the state’s preference for productive land over forested areas and titling laws that promote deforestation.

A sustainable ranching model

Armonía’s low-impact ranching project has revolved around introducing new cattle breeds, herd rotation, and fencing forest island as a way to limit grazing and soil compaction. Out of the 40 islands with motacú palms in the reserve – there are about 6,000 islands in total in the Beni savanna – seven have been fenced with chain-link mesh, helping trees to regenerate. Some islands had been previously fenced in 2016, but capybaras penetrated the ‘wildlife friendly’ barbed wire.

Armonía’s plan would be to fence off half the islands for 5-8 years, allow for regeneration, and then switch to the other half, rotating the cattle along with the fences. The NGO aims to use the Brazilian Brahman Yacumeño cow, a Zebu breed specifically adapted to the Beni’s flooded savannas that is more docile than the current Nelore breed —and thus easier to rotate (i.e. moving the cattle around so they don’t completely strip the land and feeding them on grasses endemic to the Beni).  “We want to keep cattle ranchers ranching,” says Tjalle Boorsma, conservation program director at Armonía.

Apart from the blue-throated macaw, the buff-breasted sandpiper (Calidris subruficollis) could also benefit from this approach. Every year, about 80% of this North American shorebird migrate through the Beni on their way to Argentina. Buffies, as their nickname goes, need a golf course-like grass length, and cattle grazing abets that.

“If you do not put livestock in river edge shortgrass that the birds require during southbound migration, that grass will grow beyond 10-12 centimeters,” said Boorsma. “Beyond that length, buff-breasted sandpipers will no longer use it to forage…the ideal length of shortgrass is 4-8 cm. Our research at Barba Azul [as well as in] Uruguay, Colombia and Mexico, shows [that] to create that short grass, you need livestock. There is a clear correlation between maintaining grass at ideal length and buffies coming down,” he told Mongabay.

Armonía works to implement a ‘best practices model’ ranch, with a rotation system for the cattle, a higher [calving] production rate and lower cattle mortality rate. For example, at Barba Azul, 200-hectare paddocks host 150 cows for 2 weeks; then the animals are allowed to ‘rest’ for another six weeks, allowing grass to grow back. There is no industry-wide standard for this practice, Boorsma says, adding that the animals are moved based on observed soil impacts and forage availability. “We want to back up our management through scientific research,” said Boorsma, including by introducing protocols and hiring a science manager at Barba Azul. The Bolivian government requires only that ranchers have one cow per hectare; Boorsma says this is a random number, and that he hopes to come up with a better standard based on science.

Currently, both traditional and sustainably-grown beef go into the same supply chain, while Bolivia’s beef exports have soared in the last years, mainly targeting the Chinese market. But Armonía is also planning to develop a sustainable meat certification for its beef that would separate low-impact products from those triggering deforestation. “The other ranchers want to do business with us,” says Boorsma. “We want to develop an alliance producing beef on natural grasses.”

Shifting mindsets

Grover Ibañez, a fourth-generation Beni rancher whose family has been working the same 5,700 hectares (14,085 acres) in Santa Ana de Yacuma for over a century, believes in the initiative. Ibañez, who manages more than 1,200 head of cattle, met Boorsma earlier in 2024 at a workshop at Barba Azul. The project wasn’t a hard sell. “Before the workshop, I had the idea that environmentalists considered us, the ranchers, as enemies,” Ibañez told Mongabay. Now we know that there are all kinds of people: there are ranchers who are depredators of the land and [act] without conscience, but also radical environmentalists. The key is that we have met a group of producers and environmentalists with common goals,” said Ibañez. “All my life, my family has tried to live in harmony with wildlife.”

Ibañez is now part of the Beni Eco-friendly Ranching Alliance, a non-profit created in October 2024 by the Beni Ranching Federation (Fegabeni) and Asociación Armonía to boost low-impact ranching and preserve Beni’s grasslands and wildlife depending on them. So far, five ranches have joined the initiative which covers a total of 65,000 hectares (about 160,620 acres).

Hans Peter Elsner, third-generation Bolivian and general manager of Estancias Espíritu, a conglomerate of six ranches totalling 29,000 hectares (71,660 acres) and 10,000 head of cattle, feels the sustainable model can be implemented on any scale. “I think everybody can do it,” said Elsner. “The Beni in general is sustainable—not consciously, but they breed cattle in a natural way. I think it’s not so difficult to manage that.” He says that Armonía understands local ranchers’ point of view. “We have to earn money, we have to take care of people, we have to take care of nature, too,” says Elsner, one of the ranchers willing to explore the niche markets that sustainable beef might create.

Sustainable ranching in the region

Many environmentalists associate ranching with clear-cutting and African grasses, so the idea of sustainable ranching can be a hard sell, says Boorsma. Used as forage across Latin America, African grasses have invaded natural ecosystems, reducing native diversity and changing the composition of species. Cattle are also a source of major greenhouse gas emissions, activists say. “Sustainable ranching may be possible or practical in the Bolivian altiplano with a family managing 10 cattle, growing their own forage and improving the land,” says Katherine Fernández Paz, editor of Otro Mundo es Posible, who is also part of a network of local honey producers and rural tourism initiatives. But overall, Bolivia’s 11 million cattle will continue producing heat-trapping methane that worsens the climate crisis, she told Mongabay.

Several countries in the region have been eschewing African grasses, working with Alianza Pastizal, an alliance that works to manage and protect native grasslands through sustainable practices. Nicolás Marchand, ranching and shorebird conservation specialist at Manomet Conservation Sciences, a Massachusetts-based NGO, has worked with the ranching community for over two decades on integrating sustainable ranching practices. He says that after all, ranching and environmentalism aren’t such strange bedfellows.

“In Uruguay …. the people who are the most connected to the environment are ranchers,” said Marchand. “They are quite reluctant [to allow outside influence] so …most of the farms are still natural grasslands. They have been guardians of our environment and are very practical people.”

Protecting grasslands is very much tied to protecting local biodiversity, as in the case of the blue-throated macaw. “550 species of birds depend on grasslands,” says Cleo Cunningham, head of the Climate and Forests programme at BirdLife International, an NGO that partners with Alianza de Pastizal. “There is a shared interest between cattle ranchers in the Southern Cone and BirdLife. These are sites of global biodiversity importance.”

According to Cunningham, Birdlife International is supporting ranchers in adopting sustainable grazing practices such as rotational grazing management, which boosts productivity, increases drought resilience and benefits biodiversity.

In Uruguay, Marchand told Mongabay, the ranchers felt a natural fit with Alianza Pastizal’s sustainable methodology. “A lot of people were saying to me ‘this is what I was looking for, because I already do it. I feel part of this movement, this philosophy.’” He said this reaction goes against a common conception that “ranchers are destroyers, don’t give a damn about the environment. But a lot of time they are very conservative, and this has maintained the natural capital,” he said. At the same time, Uruguay has been losing its grasslands to cattle, cash crops and tree plantations.  

“The most important thing for me is when a rancher understands his system and how to manage his grasses, (and) how to let his cattle graze. They have to understand that they have to leave some grass for it to grow – they produce more meat, capture more carbon, protect soil and protect birds. They (impact) the whole natural system,” said Marchand. “Now we’re looking at the grass, and not the cow,” he said.

Banner image: Ranching at Barba Azul Nature Reserve. Image by Luz Mercado, courtesy of Asociación Armonia.