deforestation, indigenous rights, and pacha mama · 2020. 4. 22. · deforestation, indigenous...

Deforestation, Indigenous Rights, and Pacha Mama

By Roselyn Poton INTL 407/507

Derrick Hindery 9 September 2019


Deforestation of the Amazon occurs relentlessly and in Urubichá, a town in Bolivia

located in Guarayos territory, you can see the effects it has on the indigenous communities. I

travelled to Urubichá in June 2019 with nine other students from the University of Oregon as

part of a study abroad group to learn more from the people living in the communities about

indigenous and environmental issues affecting them. Deforestation and the associated

consequences were one of the main issues that these communities face. In Urubichá, double-bed

trucks can be seen leaving nearby forests for hours each day during the logging season (see

Figure 1). During a two hour photo shoot I helped with, our team witnessed about 17 double-bed

trucks leaving the forest and loaded with valuable trees. For the indigenous communities residing

in Urubichá and other nearby towns, the forest was diminishing steadily before their eyes. The

same forest that they had sustainably harvested wood from for a very long time to use for hand

crafted instruments. A professor from the Urubichá School of Music and Art informed our study

abroad group that the loggers come and cut down large numbers of trees. Music and handcrafted

instruments are important aspects to Gurayos culture in Urubichá. Deforestation due to current

logging activities in the region, in addition to land conversion of forested areas for cattle

ranching and large-scale industrial agriculture, is threatening the survival of indigenous culture

and their livelihoods. These communities depend on the Amazon for its numerous ecoservices

(i.e. timber, food, shelter, climate regulation, water, etc.). This paper will discuss some of the

contributing factors to deforestation and how it has adversely impacted the environment and

indigenous communities. First, I will discuss the benefits that the Amazon provides and the

effects of deforestation. Then I will present some factors that contribute to deforestation,

including some state policies that encourage and help to formalize the practice. Next I’ll share

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observations and experiences from my time abroad in Bolivia as a participant of the Summer

2019 Indigenous Rights and Environmental Justice study abroad program led by Dr. Derrick

Hindery, a University of Oregon professor. With this paper I hope to illustrate how extractive

industries have adversely impacted the wellbeing of the environment, the local indigenous

communities, and the global community but, more importantly, present some solutions from an

indigenous perspective as best I can through research and my time studying abroad in Bolivia.

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Methods utilized to gather data for this research include primary and secondary sources.

Secondary sources include peer reviewed articles, journals, textbooks, and news articles. Primary

research was conducted during a three week study abroad program located in Bolivia. In June

2019, I was selected along with nine other students to participate in the first cohort of the GEO

Study Abroad program, “Indigenous Rights and Environmental Justice” led by University of

Oregon professor, Dr. Derrick Hindery. It was during this program that I learned of the struggles

of indigenous communities and leaders for autonomy and control over land and resources within

their territories. During this program, our group visited two-large scale indigenous territories in

Bolivia, Guarayos and Lomerio. We held meetings with indigenous organizations like Central

Indígenas de Comunidades Originarias de Lomerío (CICOL) and communities like San Lorenzo

de Lomerío, Urubichá and Salinas. During these meetings we documented the needs and

concerns of the indigenous communities and exchanged dialogue to learn of their perspective

and proposed solutions to issues that concern them and are related to indigenous rights and the

environment. One of these concerns was the deforestation occurring in the region and the effects

from it which include dry seasons that are longer and drier, flooding, and droughts.

The Amazon is important to protect because it provides valuable ecoservices to the local

indigenous population that call it home and to the global community that indirectly benefit from

it. These ecoservices include recycling and filtering water, forming rain, regulating local and

global climates, producing oxygen and more. One salient ecoservice is the Amazon forest’s

ability to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and sequester it. Atmospheric carbon

contributes to global warming and climate change by preventing incoming solar radiation from

being deflected back out and trapping heat in. Reducing human induced carbon emissions and

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conserving resources like the Amazon are important in mitigating climate change and global

warming. Destruction of the Amazon would add roughly 38 parts per million of carbon dioxide

to the 415 parts per million already circulating in the atmosphere, which is the highest recorded

amount in human history (Mufson and Freedman; Hays). In fact, scientific studies indicate that

carbon dioxide concentrations should be kept below 350 ppm in order to avoid reaching tipping

points and avoid catastrophic events like sea level rising (Foster, Clark, and Tork). We have

already surpassed this proposed limit which is why the Amazon, a carbon sink and mechanism

that reduces circulating carbon dioxide, is important to conserve. Some studies point to the

possibility of the Amazon reaching a tipping point where if enough deforestation occurs that it

could “die off” and transition into a much drier ecosystem (Malhi et al.). Deforestation of the

Amazon not only releases stored carbon, impedes the Earth’s ability to reduce atmospheric

carbon and maintain homeostasis, but it also exacerbates climate change. Climate change is an

ecological crisis local indigenous people and the entire global community are facing that will be

exacerbated by further deforestation of the Amazon.

Policies help create the structures that shape the way the land is used and who has access

to and control over resources. In this regard, the policies briefly discussed help legitimize

deforestation and encourage it (see Figure 2). Aiding in setting the stage for deforestation was

the Bohan Plan, an internationally prescribed economic development plan led and funded by the

United States that sought to transform and make “productive use” of fertile lands in eastern

Bolivia. It helped open up Bolivia to extractivist foreign industries such as American agricultural

corporate giant Cargill and is considered “the greatest development program planned,

implemented, and financed by the United States” that helped shape ‘la marcha hacia el oriente’

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(de la Vega-Leinert and Huber). ‘La marcha hacia el oriente’(march to the east) refers to the

large-scale migration to the east driven by “intentional, unequal distribution of land by the state”

(McKay and Colque). For example, the 20-50 hectares of land given to Andean colonists pales in

comparison to the 500-500,000 hectares given to capitalist entrepreneurs and local elites (McKay

and Colque). In 1952, a national revolution began that introduced what is known as the Agrarian

Reform. Under the Agrarian Reform the principle that “land should be for those who work it”

was adopted. In order to maintain tenure, landowners had to demonstrate productive use. Many

peasant colonists were allocated land classified as unsuitable for agricultural use under the Plan

de Uso de Suelo (PLUS), which determines land use. Under these conditions, they are

encouraged to reject forest protection laws on common land that is under permanent forest

production. This allows them to more easily prove ‘productive use’ through the clearing of forest

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in order to maintain tenure since the land is unsuitable for agriculture and state policies require

land to be “productive” to maintain tenure and clearing trees is the most economically feasible

activity for small rural farmers (de la Vega-Leinert and Huber). In the 1980s, neoliberal reforms

were then introduced as a condition for structural adjustment loans offered by international

financial institutions. These neoliberal reforms helped facilitate the extractivist activities by

requiring countries accepting them to implement policies that privatized public goods and open

markets up to foreign companies. Deregulation, or lack of policy, is another way to encourage or

allow deforestation. Recently, a policy deregulating forest protection laws of the TIPNIS region

was passed in 2017 and with it the authorization of a “deeply contested road through the core of

the park” (Fernández-Llamazares et al.). Roads encourage deforestation by increasing access to

forested land. According to the graph in Figure 3 (B), over half of deforestation in TIPNIS

occurred within 5 km of roads (Fernández-Llamazares et al.).

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Deforestation in Bolivia is driven mostly by land conversion of privately owned

territories where forested land is often converted for the purpose of cattle ranching or large scale

mechanized agriculture. For example, about 78% of deforestation is attributed to cattle ranching

and large scale mechanized agriculture while the rest occurs due to gradual conversion of

communal lands from subsistence farming to semi-mechanized commercial farming (de la

Vega-Leinert and Huber). A primary crop grown in eastern Bolivian lowlands are soybeans

which help contribute to the ‘soy complex’ that has resulted in massive deforestation according

to a myriad of studies (McKay and Colque). The ‘soy complex’ is composed of more than just

the land it grows on, it also includes “... genetically modified seeds, chemical inputs, agricultural

machinery, storage facilities, processing, transportation and the financialization of the agro-food

system…” (Mckay and Colque). Road infrastructure development also contributes to

deforestation by making remote areas more accessible. In fact, 58% of deforestation occurred

within 5km (3 mi) or less of existing roads within the iconic protected TIPNIS region, also

known as Isiboro-Sécure National Park and Indigenous Territory (Fernández-Llamazares et al.).

This region is the ancestral homeland to four indigenous groups and is a “key biodiversity

hotspot in Bolivia [and] one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth” (Fernández-Llamazares et

al.). It is logical to think that deregulation of forest protection laws in 2017 combined with

current economic and agricultural trends in Bolivia, is likely to magnify the rate of deforestation

over time.

Development does not have to take the form of extractivist industries that drive

deforestation. Instead, development can be sustainable and done without cutting down and

igniting of Bolivian Amazonia. Fabricant discussed in her paper one of the proposed indigenous

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solutions to the climate crisis, which can be applied to deforestation issues, was “...the

universalizing of Buen Vivir as a broad-based indigenous construct for living differently,

re-embedding the economic, social, and cultural into a system which lives in harmony with

Mother Earth” (Fabricant). The pace of deforestation of Bolivian Amazonia is not in harmony

with Mother Earth, also known as Pacha Mama. Adopting the ideology of ‘Buen Vivir’ would

mean prioritizing living harmoniously with the environment over trying to control and modify it

to meet human needs and desires. For example, cutting down trees and burning land to make way

for mechanized industrial farming or grazing land for cattle is a way humans modify the

environment to meet human needs. Applying the concept of ‘Buen Vivir’ means finding a

solution that is harmonious with both the environment and human needs. This may take the form

of what indigenous women in Momene, a town about thirty minutes away from the town of

Ascension in Bolivia are doing which is producing sustainable non-timber forest products like

cusi oil made from cusi nuts sustainably harvested from nearby forest. Our group witnessed how

the women harvested the cusi nuts by taking a long piece of wood and knocking stalks of cusi

nuts out of tall palm like trees. They then take the nuts and process it manually until it becomes a

translucent golden yellow liquid with many topical uses. Another way to develop without

causing deforestation is to invest in ecotourism. Our study abroad group had the privilege to stay

for three days at the San Miguelito Jaguar Conservation Ranch in Bolivia (see Figure 4). The

ranch practices sustainable cattle ranching and ecotourism which helps conserve the rich

biodiversity found in the Amazon. Our group visited a nearby town named Salinas where we

participated in a community meeting to hear about their concerns. They informed our group that

they have a lagoon that is beautiful and would be great to help attract visitors if they were to start

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their own ecotourism business. One of the issues they face in starting an ecotourism business is

starting capital. We were informed also during this meeting that sometimes their livestock are

killed by jaguars that come over from the neighboring conservation ranch without any

consequences for the loss of their livestock. Losing livestock means a loss in resources for the

community. Investing in ecotourism in Salinas would help decrease deforestation by generating a

new way to prove productive use of the land and generate income for the local indigenous

people.

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Deforestation in the Amazon is influenced and caused by multiple factors and the

solutions aren’t simple but the need to conserve the Amazon is great. Factors that contribute to

deforestation begin with policies. Early in Bolivia’s history, the goal to develop land to the east

was made when the United States led and funded the Bohan Plan. This help set in motion the

idea to develop in a “Western” way as opposed to a way that incorporates the concept of “Buen

Vivir” where a harmonious relationship to Pacha Mama, Mother Earth, is valued over destructive

extractivist activities. Some of the policies implemented after adopting the Bohan Plan appear to

have been made with this in mind. For example, the Agrarian Reform made it a requirement that

“land be for those who worked it” and in order to maintain tenure, landowners had to prove it’s

“productive use”. This creates an incentive to clear the land of trees to prove “productive use”.

My research has shown me that policies may seem well meaning but in practice they can make a

path to more problems such as deforestation. Careful policy planning can help mitigate these

problems and also seeking counsel during development from the indigenous people that these

policies seek to regulate in some form. My research also revealed that land doesn’t have to be

cleared of forest in order for development to occur. Development can be done in a sustainable

way with respect for the limitations of the environment. For example, not cutting down more of

the Amazon to prevent reaching the tipping point and also preserving Pacha Mama’s carbon

sequestering ecoservice that it performs among numerous other ecoservices. There needs to be a

greater understanding that there is only so much of the environment that can be manipulated to

meet human needs before adverse consequences are felt. During my time abroad visiting the

indigenous communities and interacting with the people living in them, I learned a lot. I

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witnessed people live in harmony with Pacha Mama. For example, instead of cutting down trees,

women from Momene sustainably harvest cusi nuts from tall trees and produce cusi oil, a

non-timber forest product. There is a way to develop without causing further deforestation and

the people living in the indigenous towns in Bolivia like Urubicha and Lomerio are doing just

that. If we just stop and listen to what they are saying and try to view development from their

perspective of “Buen Vivir” then we can find sustainable solutions to issues like deforestation.

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deforestation, indigenous rights, and pacha mama · 2020. 4. 22. · deforestation, indigenous...

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