Satellite images of central Pando show the Orthon, Madre de Dios, and Beni Rivers running northeast towards the Amazon. In the middle a tall, upland, western Amazonian forests with abundant Brazil-nut trees appear in a coppery brown color. The images also showed blue for open pampas reaching into the Department of Pando.

 

North of the Beni River, they break up into isolated, puzzle-shaped pieces of open habitat surrounded by the extensive matrix of tall forests. Wine-colored areas adjacent to the open pampas are older pampas now covered by shrubs and trees.

 

At this intersection of pampas vegetation on poor soil, and tall-forest habitats on better soils, the Bolivian government designated the Área de Inmovilización Madre de Dios (literally, an “Immobilized Area” awaiting final designation for land use). The Rapid Inventory team aimed to gather biological and social information necessary to support conservation and ecologically sensitive use of this complex mixture of habitats.