The Santa Cruz lowlands, east Bolivia, are one of South America’s most dynamic agricultural frontiers. In the Chiquitania, bordering Brazil, San Ignacio de Velasco was in 2017 ranked first nationally in terms of deforestation. There, two deforestation fronts meet with mechanized agriculture expanding from the West and South and cattle ranching from the East. Chiquitano communities are demographically dominant locally but often face land scarcity. Because of their comparatively low impact on forest vegetation, they are not well represented in broad-scale quantitative Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) studies. Based on an empirical, human geographical approach, this paper investigates the transformation of the local indigenous productive matrix, the associated land-use patterns and potential socio-ecological implications. The overall aim is to bear witness to the rapid and profound reconfiguration of traditional livelihoods with their integration in the market economy and to highlight the significance of micro-scale LULC-processes at global scale.

玻利维亚东部的圣克鲁斯低地是南美最具活力的农业疆域之一。在与巴西接壤的奇基塔尼亚（Chiquitania），2017年圣伊格纳西奥·德贝拉斯科（San Ignacio de Velasco）在森林砍伐方面在全国排名第一。那里有两个砍伐森林的前沿，与从西部和南部扩展的机械化农业以及从东部扩展的畜牧业相遇。基基塔诺（Chiquitano）社区在当地人口上占主导地位，但经常面临土地短缺。由于它们对森林植被的影响相对较小，因此在大规模的定量土地利用/土地覆盖率（LULC）研究中并未得到很好的体现。基于经验的人类地理方法，本文研究了当地土著生产矩阵的转换，相关的土地利用模式以及潜在的社会生态意义。