A new documentary about the Amazon was featured at the end of April in the CineBaix Latin American Film Festival, “Spearhead” (Punta de Lanza).
A Spanish-language interview was conducted with Marc Gavaldà, professor of political ecology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, activist and director of the new documentary.
He describes the ongoing conflicts in the Bolivian Amazon: “In Bolivia an economic matrix has been formed with an extractivist format, which seeks to expand the agricultural and mining frontier in the jungle. This encourages land marketing and colonization to deforest forests and sell wood first and then beef. There are export commitments in this regard with China and Russia that force the cattle herd to expand. On the other hand, indigenous peoples cling to their territories to preserve natural resources that they know how to exploit in a management mode that conserves forest structures and rivers. This is the most visible confrontation”
The film crew visited Madidi National Park and the Tacana 1 and Tacana 2 indigeneous communities. The film director’s relationship with the communities started in 2000 when he stayed for several months in Tumupasa. In making the film, the film crew first consulted the indigeneous community organizations, then presented their intentions to the entire community. They also organized documentary film screenings in the places where they recorded.
The film director described the threats facing the communities as follows: “The region of the northern Bolivian Amazon is one of the most well-preserved areas of the highest biodiversity in the world, but today it faces serious threats. The aforementioned highway and the opening of accesses facilitate the entry of extractive activities by activities outside the territory. On the other hand, in this vision of progress implemented by the central government, a sugar mill has been built that aims to impose a change in land uses due to the need for monoculture cane plantations. There is also an aberrant project to build two mega-dams on the Beni River that would displace dozens of riverside communities in the Tacana, Chimán and Mosetén towns.”
He also describes political efforts to “ to advance oil exploration in non-traditional areas…In 2016, a seismic exploration campaign was carried out where they opened more than 1,000 kilometers of lines to explore hydrocarbons. These works were started without consulting the affected towns, the Araona, Tacana and Cavineño. Worse still in the works were villages in voluntary isolation.”
When asked about whether there is hope given these challenges, the director said there is indeed hope and determination: “Let us not forget that these peoples have already survived centuries of exploitation. The rubber fever did a lot of damage to the Amazonian peoples, but a century later, they still retain their identity. Of course, there is a migration of young people to the city and many cultural values, such as language - are lost with the grandparents and grandmothers who die. Their ways of life, rooted in the territory, are threatened by the advance of extractivism. But a generation of young people enters organizations with encouragement and networks of resistance and mutual support are organized among peoples affected by different projects. These are times when it is time to resist and consolidate the territories.”