The Sajama National Park in Bolivia

Sajama National Park in Bolivia's Cordillera Occidental is not only the country's oldest national park; it also contains Bolivia's highest mountain, ice-capped Nevado Sajama, at 6542 m. Created in 1939 by presidential decree with the primary objective of protecting native keñua (Polylepis tarapacana) forests, the Sajama National Park, later ratified by national law, had neither formal administration nor park rangers until 1995.Towering over the barren lands of the Altiplano—Bolivia's highland plateau, at an altitude of about 4000 m—Mount Sajama plays a key role in traditional indigenous mythology, as well as in the formation of the present-day identity of local communities. The latter factor is largely due to a new policy and to multiple activities launched by the Bolivian national parks authority (Servicio Nacional de Áreas Protegidas, SERNAP) during the past decade. As an initial result, local perception of Sajama National Park as an “imposition from above” has given way to referring to the park as “our protected area.”

Archaeology · Decree · Environmental protection · Geography · Indigenous · National park · Political science · Politics · Presidential system · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Ecology · Forestry · Law

• Adaptive Livelihoods in Andean Pastoralism

  Open Access•T Perreault•Mountain Research and Development•2025

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• Local Management of Andean Wetlands in Sajama National Park, Bolivia

  Open Access•Elena Katia Villarroel, Paula Lady Pacheco Mollinedo et al.•Mountain Research and Development•2014

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