Large tracts of rainforest in Santa Cruz, Bolivia have undergone major deforestation since the 1980’s to make way for resettlement and agricultural projects. The pinwheel-patterned fields seen here follow the San Javier resettlement scheme, with each pinwheel containing a central community that includes a church, bar/café, school, and soccer field. The light-colored areas of the formations are primarily fields of soybeans, and the dark lines running through the fields are “windbreaks” that prevent the erosion of the area’s unusually fine soil.
