Venezuela's Forests in Brief

Venezuela is still home to large tracts of intact forest, which offer tremendous opportunity for conservation and sustainable development.

  Approximately half of the country is forested, and most of the forests can be found south of the Orinoco River in the Guayana region.

  Approximately one fifth to one third of the country’s forest land is protected for conservation purposes.

  Forest ecosystems of the Guayana region are home for much of the country’s wildlife and other non-timber forest species, which help sustain the livelihoods of indigenous peoples.

Forests of the Guayana region are at risk from logging, mining, agriculture, and population pressures.

  Colonization of the forest by small-scale farmers and miners represents the greatest pressure on forest ecosystems of the Guayana region.

  Population pressures and conflicts in land use create the potential for forest loss. Logging, mining, agricultural communities, and indigenous settlements overlap throughout Bolívar State, and especially in the Imataca Forest Reserve.

  Current logging and mining practices promote forest degradation and, where population pressures are high, facilitate deforestation in the Guayana region.

  The legal status is unclear for half of the area protected for conservation purposes in the Guayana region. This lack of clarity results from overlaps between protected areas with conflicting objectives and uncertainty regarding protected area boundaries established in official documents.

Basic data on Venezuela’s forest ecosystems are out-of-date or incomplete. Key forest ecosystems may disappear before scientists have an opportunity to study them.

  Venezuela has not conducted any forest inventories and the most recent publicly available vegetation map at a national scale was produced in 1983.

  Official records do not accurately identify the location or ownership of mining concessions. The most recent database is over five years old.