Wine, cheese and building a gourmet territory: biocultural resource-based development strategies in Bolivia

ABSTRACT

Products based on local biological and cultural diversity are sometimes seen as a sustainable development pathway. Questions persist, however, surrounding how mobilising collective biocultural heritage as resources to meet certain development objectives may shape regimes of resource use, access, benefit and social inclusion within a territory. We examine these questions through a case of gourmet product development analysed from ecological, economic and sociocultural perspectives. We conclude by identifying five biocultural design coordinates, or points of reflection, that may support communities, organisations and governments seeking to use biocultural resources while minimising risks of environmental harm, elite capture and exclusion.

RÉSUMÉ

Les produits empreints de diversité biologique et culturelle locale sont parfois considérés comme une voie de développement durable. Se pose cependant la question de savoir comment la mobilisation du patrimoine bioculturel collectif, en tant que ressource visant des objectifs de développement, pourrait influencer les régimes d’usage, d’accès, de bénéfices et d’inclusion sociale au sein d’un territoire. À travers un cas de développement de produits gourmets, nous examinons ces questions dans une perspective écologique, économique et socioculturelle. Nous identifions cinq coordonnées, ou points de réflexion, ayant trait à la conception bioculturelle, qui peuvent aider les communautés, organisations et gouvernements qui cherchent à utiliser les ressources bioculturelles tout en minimisant les risques d’impacts environnementaux, l’accaparement par les élites et l’exclusion.

KEYWORDS:

• Biocultural resources
• biocultural design
• gourmet markets
• sustainable rural development
• rural territorial development

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the research collaborators, key informants, JAINA – Comunidad de Estudios, RIMISP – Centro Latinoamericano para el Desarrollo Rural, Asociación de Turismo de San Lorenzo, Gobernación Sub-Sección San Lorenzo and the other organisations and individuals who made this research possible. We are also grateful to Dr. Julián Idrobo, Ingeniera Fidelia Romero Lopez, Profesora Leonela Valdez and Marina Pastrana for their collaboration, patience and many insights and helpful suggestions during data gathering.

Notes on contributors

Katherine Turner holds a PhD (2016) from the Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba. Her research centres on food systems and the use of local biological and cultural resources in development processes.

Iain Davidson-Hunt is Professor at the Natural Resources Institute of the University of Manitoba, Member of the Canadian Institute of Planners and Deputy Chair of the People in Nature Knowledge Basket of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. He has worked with indigenous peoples and local communities on territorial land-use planning, ethnoecology, food systems and biodiversity-based enterprise development.

Ian Hudson is Professor of Economics at the University of Manitoba. He has recently co-authored Fair Trade, Sustainability and Social Change (Palgrave, 2013).

Notes

1 All Spanish texts, including interviews and documents, are translated by the authors.

2 The website is no longer available.

3 The IDB has invested USD2.7 million cumulatively in four projects (IDB 2016; SISTME/Mesopartner 2013), in addition to over USD9 million invested in the Grapes, Wine and Singani Cluster by international development agencies and the Bolivian government (Comité de Competitividad 2009; SISTME/Mesopartner 2013, 70).

4 Based on 2009 GDP estimates.

5 Goat’s cheese production, however, is done exclusively in-house.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada under Grants 410-2010-1818, 890-2011-0113 and 767-2011-0128; and the Canadian International Development Agency and Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada’s Students for Development Program (Individual Internship Award to Katherine Turner).