The Role of Rainfed Farm Ponds in Sustaining Agriculture and Soil Conservation in the Dry High Valley Region of Cochabamba, Bolivia: Design Considerations and Post Impoundment Analysis Page: 14

                                
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Bolivia is the most "Indian" nation in South America, more than 55% of the people
are of pure Indian (Quechua, Aymara or other) stock, while an estimated 35% of the
population is mestizo, people of mixed Spanish and Indian blood. The remaining 10% or
so of the population is of European descent. People of African heritage most of whom are
descended from slaves that were conscripted to work in the mines of Potosi during the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries make up 1% or less of the population. Recent
immigrants include Japanese, Chinese, Indians, Arabs, and Platt-Deutsch-speaking
Mennonites.
Although the country lies entirely within the tropics, elevation plays more of a role in
determining the climate than latitude does, and one can find anything from hot and humid
lowlands to cold barren icy peaks. The terrain varies from the rugged Andes Mountains in
the west (elevations greater than 21,000 feet), to high plains (altiplano), to hills, to the
lowland plains of the Amazon. The country is rich in mineral resources, natural gas and
timber, all of which help to contribute to its economy. However, agriculture provides
employment for approximately 50 percent of the labor force. In the late 1980s and early
1990s, coca and cocaine production brought between $600 million to 1 billion dollars
annually into the country, more than all legal exports combined (Swaney, 1992). This
emphasis on a "cocaine economy" has, within the last four to five years, shifted toward a
more licit economy, due mainly to efforts by the United States Government along with
help and money from USAID. However, much money laundering still takes place, and
infrastructures of entire cities have been built or greatly improved (indirectly) through this
new found wealth. Currently, a demographic transition is taking place and at last count