Profitability of comprehensive forest and land management plans in peasant and indigenous communities of Pando, Bolivia

Abstract

In recent years, about 7 million hectares of forest are managed by Indigenous Peasant Territories, community properties and small producers, while forest entrepreneurs only manage about 2 million hectares. The Plurinational State of Bolivia through the promulgation of Laws and Norms has laid the foundations and orientations of Living Well, with which it suggests carrying out an integral and sustainable management of forests and land. In the 2014-2015 period, the first Comprehensive Forest and Land Management Plans (PGIBT) emerged in the department of Pando. These instruments, unlike others, are characterized by proposing the use of forest and land resources through the implementation of sustainable production systems among them: non-timber (chestnut, majo, asaí, syringa, jatata and others), timber, agroforestry, silvopastoral, forest plantations, tourism, among others. However, there is no information on costs, prices, profitability, market, etc., of the process of their implementation. The objective of this study was to determine the profitability of PGIBT in Pando communities. For this, the methodology of “profitability through discounted cash flows” has been used, applying a discount rate and an average inflation rate, obtaining the financial indicators VAN, IRR, B / C and economic indicators, profit per hectare and annual income per family. A sensitivity analysis was performed simulating 3 scenarios, increased costs, decreased sales prices and a joint action by both. The results show that the PGIBT analyzed are profitable, mainly those communities that have large areas, with a diversity of products and attractive production volumes. However, some are at the limit, among them, communities with low abundance and low product diversity, are sensitive to increased production costs, so that they become unprofitable, especially those with small areas