Venezuela: Overview

Venezuela has a land area of approximately 890,000 square kilometers, approximately half of which is forested. Almost all of this forested area is located south of the Orinoco River in the Guayana region, which includes Delta Amacuro, Bolívar and Amazonas states. Venezuela’s forests provide an array of economic, social, and ecological services that are of vital importance to the nation’s economy and culture. Over 80 percent of the country’s indigenous groups live in the forests of the Guayana region. Venezuelan forests also stand out globally for the biodiversity that they harbor. The country ranks in the top twenty countries for number of endemic plants, amphibians, birds, and reptiles. Venezuela also has tremendous biodiversity, ranking in the top twenty in the world in terms of birds, amphibians, and plants.

In the last forty years, about 80 percent of Venezuela’s estimated deforestation has occurred north of the Orinoco River, where most of the major population centers are located. In the past, urbanization benefited the forests of the Guayana region by concentrating the majority of the nation’s people in towns and cities along the northern coast. However, decline in oil prices in the mid- to late-1980s and the recent economic crisis have resulted in increased pressure on the forests. The decline of opportunities in northern cities has led to a mass migration of people into the Guayana region forests to seek new opportunities. In addition, a stronger emphasis has been placed on developing the southern half of the country, particularly for gold and diamond mining. A combination of low gold prices and higher petroleum prices slowed industrial development in this region in 2000, but the Venezuelan government continues to express an interest in increased mining exploitation.

The Venezuelan economy is highly dependent on petroleum income, which generated 27 percent of GDP in 2000 and is a significant source of growth for the manufacturing and services sectors. Fuel exports make up 80 percent of export revenues. By contrast, logging contributes little to the national economy, providing less than one percent of Venezuela’s GDP. Mining also contributes little to the national economy, although Venezuela is an important producer of some metals, such as iron ore and aluminum.

The State of Venezuela’s Forests: A Case Study of the Guayana Region both confirms our findings from previous research, and provides new, previously unpublished data on development activities in the country’s largest block of forests. Venezuelan partners have documented the rich biological diversity harbored in forests of the Guayana region. Because a large percentage of these forests remain relatively undisturbed, Venezuela is faced with a unique opportunity to maintain one of the world’s largest tracts of forest intact for future generations. However, forests of the Guayana region are increasingly under threat from large-scale development activities and population pressures. Although a significant proportion of the forests are protected as national parks and natural monuments, uncertainties regarding protected area boundaries and overlaps with other areas designated for extractive uses mean that fragile ecosystems could be opened for large-scale extractive activities.

GFW Venezuela has attempted to collect the best available data to document these trends. However, information on the Guayana region is lacking, and even basic cartographic data are not available for some areas. This lack of information is one of the most serious threats to forest conservation in the Guayana region, as it precludes sound planning and management.

Sources

Oficina Central de Estadísticas e Informática, El Censo Indígena de 1992 (Caracas, Venezuela: OCEI, 1993), pp. 28-32.

WRI, World Resources Report, 2000-2001 (Washington, DC: WRI, 2001) for plants, amphibians, birds, and reptiles; Mammals data from J. Ochoa G. and M. Aguilera, “Mamíferos,” in M. Aguilera et al. (eds.), La Diversidad Biológica en Venezuela (Caracas, Venezuela: CONICIT, Fundación Polar, in press).

C.S. Harcourt and J.A. Sayer, eds. The Conservation Atlas of Tropical Forests: The Americas (New York: IUCN, 1996), p. 315.

The trend towards urbanization is strongly linked to periodic booms in the oil sector. See S. Wunder, “Oil Wealth and the Fate of the Forest: Venezuela,” Unpublished CIFOR Draft (Bogor, Indonesia: CIFOR, 2001), pp. 38-39.

Oficina Central de Estadísticas e Informática, El Censo 90 en Bolívar (Caracas, Venezuela: OCEI, 1995).

Banco Central de Venezuela. n.d. “Indicadores Economicos: Producto Interno Bruto.” Online at: http://www.bcv.org.ve/pdf/712.pdf (June 27, 2001).

M. Miranda et al., All That Glitters is not Gold: Balancing Conservation and Development in Venezuela’s Frontier Forests (Washington, DC: World Resources Institute, 1998) p. 11.