The Great Soy Expansion Brazilian land grabs in Eastern Bolivia

Foreigners now control more than one million hectares of prime agricultural and ranching lands in Bolivia, primarily in the eastern lowland department of Santa Cruz, an important agro-export region dominated by transnational corporations and what has been termed “trans-Latina” corporations or TLCs. The rapidly expanding soy and ranching industries are the primary cause of deforestation and land use change in the country, at a high cost to the environment, national food security and indigenous peasant livelihoods. This brief traces recent agrarian transformations in the Bolivian lowlands, including rising foreign control over land; widespread tropical deforestation; the role of the state in facilitating changes in land use and control; and the environmental and social impacts of these changes.

This is the third brief in the Land & Sovereignty in the Americas series, co-published by Food First, the Transnational Institute and Fundación Tierra.

Miguel Urioste F. de C. (m.urioste [at] ftierra.org) is an agricultural economist, specialized in rural development and land. He is currently Senior Researcher at Fundación Tierra and an agrarian reform activist. He has published numerous articles, many of which can be found at www.ftierra.org