Between resistance and negotiation: indigenous organisations and the Bolivian State in the case of TIPNIS

Abstract

A government-driven road-building project, crossing the national park and demarcated indigenous communitarian native land Isiboro Sécure (TIPNIS) in the Bolivian Amazon, has caused considerable debate, divisions and conflict. Based on extensive fieldwork in Bolivia, I examine the conflict between 2011 and 2013, focusing on specific cases of micro-politics with examples of changing strategies, local negotiations and strategic framings in the interactions between the indigenous organisations and the state involved in the conflict. I show that the evolution of the conflict has been affected by these micro-political issues, as well as strategic state projects. Secondly, I focus on how discursive framings have legitimised advanced or marginalised certain solutions, ideas and interests.

Keywords:

• political ecology
• indigenous peoples
• social movements
• state-society relations
• resource conflicts

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Norwegian Research Council (grant number 204110). I am grateful to my supervisors, Associate Professor Mariel Aguilar-Støen and Professor John Andrew McNeish, for valuable discussions, inputs and support; two anonymous reviewers and Editor-in-Chief Saturnino M. (‘Jun’) Borras Jr for their constructive comments; David Vasquez for support and valuable discussions; and all the organisations and informants in Bolivia who have contributed to this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Territorio Indígena y Parque Nacional Isiboro Sécure – TIPNIS.

2 TCOs are recognised under the National Agrarian Reform Service Law, INRA 1996 (Ley del Servicio Nacional de Reforma Agraria). The category entails that the land cannot be subdivided, sold or rented, and is collectively managed by indigenous organisations.

3 According to García Linera (2013) this specific road section is not part of IIRSA.

4 The government handled the incident poorly, and parts of MAS blamed the police for having acted without a mandate (interview, MAS advisor, March 2012). Although the government called for investigations in 2011, the case remains unresolved as of August 2017.

5 Ley 180 de Protección del Territorio Indígena y Parque Nacional Isiboro Sécure, 24 October 2011.

6 Ley 222 de Consulta de los Pueblos Indígenas del TIPNIS, 7 February 2012.

7 Contracts obtained by author between the government and the Chiquitano organisation (OICHE), the Guaranis (APG) and indigenous from north La Paz (CPILAP).

8 Parts of the TIPNIS movement participated in the local elections in Beni in 2013, but obtained only 2.4 percent of the vote (Rivas 2013). When offered a seat in the Benian government by a right-wing opposition party, the indigenous representative, Pedro Nuni, accepted (La Razon 2013).

9 An international campaign is ongoing to file the case of Chaparina with the Inter-American Human Rights Commission. In collaboration with the Global Greens, the TIPNIS leader, Fernando Vargas, ran as a presidential candidate in 2014. In the election, CIDOB proclaimed their independence from political parties. The Green Party obtained 2.7 percent, which was not sufficient (three percent) to gain representation in the Pluri-National Assembly (TSE 2014).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Council of Norway, under grant number 204110. The research council has not had any involvement in the design, collection, analysis or interpretation of data, nor writing the report and not in the decision to submit the paper for publication.

Notes on contributors

Cecilie Hirsch

Cecilie Hirsch is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Landscape and Society, at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, and a PhD fellow at the Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo. She works on issues such as environmental governance, environmental conflicts, indigenous peoples, social movements, hydropower development, climate change and forests policies in Latin America, using a political ecology approach. Email: [email protected]