The essay attempts to clarify the complex relationship between ecological problems and socio-political variables in the Bolivian case. On the basis of documentary and empirical materials gathered by himself, the author states that a rapid modernization of all aspects of Bolivian reality and the absolute priority of modernization over conservationist issues constitute the major nonnative goals of political parties, social movements, and modern functional elites (private entrepreneurs, journalists, trade union leaders and high civil servants). This conception is also shared by the Indian peasants of the western highland, who try to extend the agricultural frontier by opening up and utilizing the tropical lowlands of eastern Bolivia. The rain forests are the most endangered ecosystems. The only important resistance to this drive is coming from the Amazonian forest Indians, small ethnical communities still living in the eastern lowlands. This protest movement is being supported by the Catholic Church.
