BOX 4.1 NEGOTIATING INDIGENOUS TENURE RIGHTS IN BOLIVIA

In the lowlands of eastern Bolivia, land rights lie at the heart of a pioneering agreement to preserve both an indigenous people’s way of life and a unique tract of dry tropical forest. The deal shows the importance and difficulty of negotiating land tenure amidst differing land uses and user groups.

The setting is the Gran Chaco, an isolated, biodiverse region where the pre-Hispanic Guaraní-Izoceño people have sustainably farmed and hunted the parched, inhospitable land for centuries. In recent decades large-scale cattle ranching and commercial soybean, sunflower, and cotton farming have encroached upon traditional indigenous territory, damaging the land through deforestation and soil degradation. Lacking tenure rights over the public lands they lived on and utilized, the Guaraní-Izoceño were unable to prevent these incursions

Negotiations in the 1990s between Bolivia’s government and the Capitania del Alto y Bajo Izozog (CABI), a grassroots indigenous organization representing the Guaraní-Izoceño, resulted in two landmark agreements. The first preserved 3.4 million hectares of uninhabited Gran Chaco forest and scrub as a national park, designated in 1995. The second will grant the Guaraní-Izoceño title to 1.5 million hectares of land adjacent to the park as a communally owned indigenous territory.

For the Guaraní-Izoceño, the outcome was a pragmatic compromise. On the one hand, they relinquished any ownership claim to the land encompassed by the Kaa-Iya del Gran Chaco National Park (KINP), now the world’s largest protected area of dry tropical forest (Winer 2003:181). On the other, the 10,000-strong community, which lives in 23 villages scattered along the Parapet River, will own the sole right to exploit the land and forests of their titled territory—a major step towards safeguarding their livelihoods and future survival (CABI 2004:1-2).

The Guaraní-Izoceño also negotiated a major influence over the park. The KINP is now the only national park in the Americas coadministered by an indigenous organization and a national government. Moreover, the group won the right to pursue sustainable activities, such as ecotourism and fishing, in some park areas, while closing the entire area to new settlers (CABI 2004:1).

CABI’s successful land rights campaign was pursued in partnership with the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which was anxious to protect the Gran Chaco’s abundant and often rare wildlife, including jaguars, Chacoan peccaries and guanacos, giant armadillos, pumas, and tapirs (Roach 2004:1). Backed by WCS expertise, CABI submitted a successful proposal for a co-managed national park in 1995. To ensure community buy-in, the park proposal was reviewed in community meetings. To allay livelihood concerns, the border was determined in such a way as to minimize conflict—excluding from the park areas utilized by communities or occupied by third parties (Noss 2005).

In 1997, CABI presented a demand for a Tierra Comunitaria de Orígen (TCO)—designated indigenous territory—under Bolivia’s new agrarian reform law. The government approved the request, while retaining ownership rights to underground minerals and awarding water rights to the local municipal government. By April 2005, 300,000 hectares of land had been titled. When the process is complete, 1.5 million hectares of formerly public land will be owned by CABI, as the indigenous people’s legal representative, with the remainder of the 1.9 million hectares in private, nonindigenous ownership (Noss 2005).

While the new land rights afforded the Guaraní-Izoceño are clearly conditional, they offer significant potential to boost food and livelihood security. A revitalization of traditional production systems is already underway, with women villagers experimenting with the production of mesquite flour and fish meal for sale in the Isoso communities. Plant-based shampoo and honey are also being commercially developed for sale in Santa Cruz, the regional capital. These activities are managed by CABI’s women’s organization, CIMCI, whose goals are to empower women, promote traditional culture, improve food availability and nutrition and, ultimately, boost indigenous incomes (Winer 2001:13). CABI has also sought government permission for sustainable commercial trade in collared peccary and tegu lizard skins (Noss 2005).

According to a recent report on the land deals by an the independent consultant, the TCO, by increasing livelihood security, will enable the Guaraní-Izoceño to “retain their identity as an indigenous tribe of lowland Bolivia while building stronger, and more equitable, economic links with the expanding market-driven economy of Santa Cruz” (Winer 2001:12).

The conditional nature of the tribe’s land rights, however, is underlined by the presence of the 1,900-mile Bolivia-Brazil pipeline, which bisects both the Kaa-Iya National Park and the TCO. The pipeline was approved before either the park or indigenous territory were created, and the government retains rights to energy resources in the area (Roach 2004:12). As a consequence, Bolivia’s government has granted further gas and oil exploration concessions in both the KINP and the indigenous territory, although energy companies would be required to work with CABI to mitigate their social and environmental impacts. A trust fund contributed by the existing pipeline companies, following an agreement with indigenous organizations, including CABI, made up 43 percent of the park’s budget between 1998 and 2003 (Noss 2005).

References

Capitania del Alto y Bajo Izogog (CABI). 2004. “Equator Prize Submission to UN Development Program’s Equator Initiative.” Santa Cruz: CABI.

Noss, A. 2005. Conservation Zoologist and Coordinator, Chaco Landscape program, Wildlife Conservation Society. Personal Communication. E-mail. April 18, 21, 2005.

Roach, J. 2004. “Unique Bolivia Park Begun by Indigenous People.” National Geographic News(January 13, 2004). Online at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/ 2001/0113_040113_chacopark.html.

Winer, N. 2003. “Co-Management of Protected Areas, the Oil and Gas Industry and Indigenous Empowerment—The Experience of Bolivia’s Kaa-Iya del Gran Chaco.” Policy Matters12:181-191.

Winer, N. 2001. “Bolivia Case Study: Kaa Iya del Gran Chaco.” Report prepared for IUCN The World Conservation Union.