The Bolivian government has revived a long-held plan to build a hydroelectric plant in a corner of the country’s western La Paz department, sparking concerns about the potential displacement of more than 5,000 Indigenous people from the area.
Emergency: the Pilón Lajas reserve has been on fire for 10 days and they ask for help
According to Pagina Siete, “For 10 days the fire has not ceased in the Pilón Lajas Community Land and Biosphere Reserve, in the department of Beni. Although there are brigades that work in the place, the regional authorities and the residents request air support because the water sources of several communities are at risk…
Pilón de Lajas is a Peasant Native Indigenous Territory that is located between the departments of La Paz and Beni, where the Andes Mountains end and the Amazon plains begin.
In addition, it has an area of 396,264 hectares, equivalent to less than 1% of the national surface, and is considered one of the regions with the greatest biological diversity in Bolivia and the world.”
Forest fire that has been burning for more than a week in the Pilón Lajas reserve cannot be put down
According to Magaly Tipuni, Vice President of Tsimán Mosetén y Tacana Regional Council (CRTSM), the forest fire that has been burning for more than a week in the Pilón Lajas Community Land and Biosphere Reserve cannot be controlled with local resources and the government has not provided an effective response to date. Despite some rain on Sunday, wind has caused the fire to spread.
“We are in danger and we have no answer; only the Municipal Government has tried to put out the fire that is between ravines and there is no response from the central Government. We are losing forest, an infinity of timber and medicinal trees. Our animals are dying ”, he exclaimed.
According to estimates, at least 150 hectares of forest have already been lost due to the forest fire. "There is a lot of biodiversity, which we are losing and as a population we are running out of the water that is at the top of the hill," he said. Tipuni also said ‘‘The fire has not been caused by our people, but by those who are in the reserve, the intercultural brothers are the ones who have caused this disaster.”
Natalie Conneely: "In Bolivia they did not fulfill the promise to take care of Pachamama"
The documentary “Selva Adentro” will premiere at the Ibero-American Film Festival in Miami on November 5. Directed by Natalie Conneely, the film “follows climate activist Alex Villca on his return to the community of San José de Uchupiamonas (La Paz).” Rurrenabaque, Madidi, Chiquitania, Aguas Calientes and other locations are shown in the film.
Natalie explained “the forests in Chiquitania are destroyed by chaqueos that are not authorized by the original communities, but others that come from arid lands, where the winds that spread and aggravated the fires in 2019 do not exist. Government is giving away natural resources and that foreign companies have permission to destroy the land for economic interests. Unfortunately, indigenous peoples are promised resources to get ahead, but they betray them and take advantage of their trust and their lifestyle, which lives in harmony with nature.” She added “in Bolivia the promise and the laws to take care of the Pachamama have not been respected, which is very sad.”
WCS alerts contamination of the Tuichi River due to mining activity within Madidi
The Wildlife Conservation Society rings the bell about mining contamination in the Tuichi River within Madidi National Park.
This Spanish article discusses the concerns of Deputy Director of the Great Madidi Landscape Conservation Program and Coordinator of the Interinstitutional Group of Responsible Gold Work (GIT-OR), Óscar Loayza
With more than 20 years of experience in field work in protected areas, Loayza points out that the demand of gold mining cooperatives calls for the recategorization and rezoning of protected areas based on mining activity, and not the other way around, when it should be based on natural conservation values that are approved or not. El Madidi is considered the most biodiverse park in the world.
Read the whole article here
Bolivia: fear in six indigenous groups due to the reactivation of the Chepete-El Bala hydroelectric project
On September 7, Mongabay highlighted concerns raised by local indigeneous groups regarding governmental plans to move forward with building the Chepete/El Bala megadams. The Spanish-language article noted that “There are more than 5,000 indigenous people affected by the floods as a result of the construction of the dams.” Unfortunately, these plans have created a division amongst local indigeneous groups. According to Mongabay, “a group of 10 organizations has signed an agreement with the state electric power company that approves the start of feasibility studies.”
Previous plans to build megadams in this area had been rejected by both local indigeneous communities, and their “economic unfeasibility and high environmental cost.”
The article quotes Alex Villca, “part of the National Coordinator for the Defense of Indigenous Peasant Territories and Protected Areas ( Contiocap ) of Bolivia” : ““This would imply a forced displacement and that is to take away our territory. We would be forced to leave our spaces, our ancestral domains. We would be giving up what is most vital: without territory there are no indigenous peoples. This would be accepting a silent death. Wherever they take us, it will never be the same.”
“Last week, the state-owned Empresa Nacional de Energía Eléctrica (ENDE) resumed commissioning of the Chepete and El Bala hydroelectric project. It launched a call for companies for geological and geotechnical research. According to the invitation COR-GPP-BAL-22-2021, ENDE called for proposals for the “Complementary geological-geotechnical research service”.
On August 16, The Central of Indigenous Peoples of La Paz (CPILAP) signed an agreement with ENDE “to allow Ende Cooperation and its contracted companies to enter the areas of direct and indirect influence to carry out research, information, socialization and data collection that allows studies, formulate projects. , to final design to implement electric power generation, transmission, and distribution projects ”. CPILAP is “a regional organization that brings together ten organizations of indigenous peoples from the department of La Paz.” According to Alex Villca, these organizations are “related to the Movement for Socialism (MAS), the party of Evo Morales and which is now in office.”
The President of CPILAP, Gonzalo Oliver Terrazas, was quoted in the article: “This agreement does not imply the construction of dams. The objective is to determine the feasibility or not of the project. Other important aspects of the agreement is the social component, which we have incorporated so that there can be electrification and housing projects.” [It is our view that if these communities are underwater with the building of the megadams, then benefits from electrification and housing projects will be extremely short-lived!]
In direct opposition to this view, the article also notes that “The Commonwealth of Indigenous Communities of the Beni, Tuichi and Quiquibey rivers, an organization that was created in 2001 to assume the defense of the ancestral territories of the six indigenous nations affected by the threat of the project, demands that a prior consultation be carried out to the communities to approve or not to carry out the hydroelectric project. A meeting was held last weekend and These towns met over the weekend in an assembly and decided to reject the government's initiative…”
The planned megadams “would flood at least 662 square kilometers. In other words, the two reservoirs would be five times larger than the urban area of the city of La Paz…The project consists of two hydroelectric plants on the Beni river: the first of them would be in the Chepete narrow, 70 kilometers upstream from the city of Rurrenabaque, in the department of Beni, and the second is close to the El narrow. Bala, 13.5 kilometers upstream from that same town.”
“The Chepete dam would raise the water level by 158 meters, forming a lake 400 meters above sea level. The El Bala dam would raise the water level by about 20 meters and its reservoir will be 220 meters above sea level. Unlike the Chepete dam, which would be a concrete wall, the El Bala dam would be made up of gates and generators that would be in the middle of the river.
According to the Solón Foundation, a total of 5164 people should be relocated, the majority of whom are indigenous…in the area there are 424 species of flora, 201 species of land mammals, 652 species of birds, 483 species of amphibians and reptiles, and 515 species of fish." For example, “the entire community of San Miguel del Bala would be flooded and there is no official information for the displacement of their residents. inhabitants, which are a little more than 1000 people.”
With the construction of the Chepete dam, “All the populated areas that this reservoir would affect, according to Geodata, are collectively titled lands that belong to the Tacanas, Lecos and Mosetenes indigenous peoples. In addition, touching the rivers in this area would be damaging the main livelihoods of the peoples: fishing, agriculture and, in recent times, community tourism, very affected by the coronavirus pandemic.”
According to Valentín Luna, a leader in the San Miguel del Bala community (Tacana) at least 20 eco-shelters (ecotourism) are located in the axis of the Madidi and Pilón Lajas nature reserves. “Most of these initiatives are managed from the indigenous communities themselves. If the hydroelectric project is executed, according to Luna, four of the eco-shelters would be affected by floods with the construction of the dams: the Chalalán shelter of the Uchupiamonas, the one run by the community members of San Miguel de Bala, the one in the community of Villa Alcira and the one run by the Chimanes and Mosetenes of Asunción del Quiquibey.”
Indigenous people denounce the signing of an agreement to resume work in El Bala and Chepete
According to this Spanish-language article, “the National Electricity Company (ENDE) signed an agreement with the Central of Indigenous Peoples of La Paz (CPILAP) to resume the implementation of hydroelectric plants in El Bala and Chepete” on August 16. The purpose of the agreement “s the coordination and cooperation in the development of all activities in the stage of the "studies to final design of the El Bala Hydroelectric Project or other studies of the electricity sector, as well as the socialization and information by part of ENDE, its contracted and subcontracted companies and affiliates or subsidiaries ”and“ guarantee a fluid and constant communication when it comes to the elaboration of rural electrification projects ”.
The signed agreement allows “ENDE Corporación and its contracted companies to enter “the areas of direct and indirect influence to carry out research work , information, socialization and data collection that allows studies, formulate projects to final design to implement projects for the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity ». It also indicates that CPILAP will accompany "the process of socialization, information and data collection for the generation of studies within a framework of respect for professionals and technicians who visit the communities that are in the project's area of influence. They also undertake to "deliver and provide information within the framework of truthfulness, thereby allowing certain results to be obtained that will be the fundamental basis of the project."
“CPILAP is a regional organization that brings together 10 organizations of indigenous peoples of La Paz such as the Indigenous Council of the Tacana People (CIPTA), the Central Indigenous People of the Leco de Apolo (CIPLA), the Leco Indigenous People and the Larecaja Indigenous Communities (PILCOL) , Moseten Indigenous People Organization (OPIM), San José de Uchupiamonas Indigenous People (PI-SJU), Esse Ejja de Eiyoquibo Indigenous Community (CEEE), T-simane Moseten de Pilón Lajas Regional Council (CRTM-PL), Agroecological Community Originally from Palos Blancos (CAOPB), Tacana II Rio Madre de Dios Indigenous Communities (CITRMD) and Captaincy of the Araona Indigenous People (CAPIA).”
Alex Villca, spokesman for the Coordinator for the Defense of Indigenous Peasant Territories and Protected Areas of Bolivia, is quoted in the article: “What worries us in the tenor of this agreement is that it would not only be carried out to carry out complementary studies, but in the future it would be allowing ENDE to start with the start-up and construction of the Chepete and El Bala hydroelectric plants "This is much more serious.”
World Wildlife Fund-Brasil launches platform that brings together studies and information on mercury and mining in the pan-Amazon region
According to a Portuguese news report, the World Wildlife Fund-Brasil has launched a georeferenced platform "Mercury Observatory.”
“The tool brings together studies on mercury and data on gold mining, in addition to showing the large amount of legal and illegal mining in Indigenous Lands (TI) in the region. The platform covers not only the Brazilian Amazon, but the entire Pan-Amazon region - which includes other countries with Amazon rainforest - and shows the same pressure on indigenous peoples in Colombia, Guyana and Bolivia.”
“All Brazilian states and countries with Amazon rainforest, such as TI Pilón Lajas, in Bolivia” are included. “On the platform, it is possible to make a georeferenced navigation through layers, which facilitates the spatial location of mining activities…For example, by choosing the Municipalities, Mining, Illegal Mining, Mercury Contamination in Humans and Mercury Contamination in Fish layers, it is possible to visualize the regions where studies were carried out showing mercury contamination and the mining areas…”
“Along with mining and violence, there is also mercury, a metal used to separate gold from other sediments. It adds to the mercury that is also present in nature and is released into the atmosphere by deforestation, fires and man-made alterations, reaching levels that are harmful to health.”
“On the platform, it is possible to view records of studies carried out on contamination with humans and fish.”
“For the WWF-Brazil conservation specialist and leader of the agenda to combat illegal mining, Marcelo Oliveira, the publication by the Mercúrio Observatory evidences the pressing problem of the illegal use of mercury in the mining operations.
"The ambition is that the gathering of these data and information about the Pan-Amazon can serve as technical-scientific support for the development and implementation of public policies and for decision-making that promote the legality and conservation of the region and respect autonomy and rights of local traditional peoples, including indigenous peoples, riverside dwellers and quilombolas," he said.”
According to activist Jama Wapishana: “In addition to command and control, there is a lack of public policies that also guarantee autonomy, health and a dignified life for indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples need security and strong institutions on their behalf so that they can continue to fight for their lands and see a dignified future in their traditional way of life.”
Jaguar poaching in Madidi National Park is directly linked to development projects
Newsweek recently featured the documentary, Tigre Gente. The article makes the connection between jaguar poaching in Madidi National Park, development projects, and reduced ecotourism possibilities.
“Losing such an emblematic species, so important for Bolivia, would mean reducing the possibilities that the national park has to continue developing ecotourism in the way we have been implementing it—through community tourism with the Indigenous people.”
“It's a new threat that is directly linked to the presence of some Chinese suppliers, due to some of the development projects that are being implemented in surrounding areas of the national park. This is where lots of construction companies come, lots of them Chinese, with many contracted workers of Chinese origin.”
Fires affected 17 indigenous territories in the country
“The Center for Autonomous Territorial Planning (CPTA) of the Center for Legal Studies and Social Research-CEJIS reported that, during the month of June, 226 heat sources were registered in indigenous territories and 452 in Protected Areas . The fires affected 17 indigenous territories in the departments of Santa Cruz (70 foci), Beni (114 foci) and La Paz (12 foci).
In total numbers, from the start of the year until June 2021, 15,815 heat sources were registered in the country. It represents an increase of 50% compared to the outbreaks recorded a year earlier.”
For more information, see the original Spanish-language article.