Ghost works and half-built projects left by the "Evo Cumple" in two regions of La Paz and Beni

Los Tiempos reported that 5 projects undertaken by the Special Projects Unit (Upre), of the "Bolivia Cambia, Evo Cumple" program in favor of indigenous communities in the North of La Paz and Beni are still unfinished “covered by scrub and two of them practically do not exist.” Three of the projects were awarded “to the Indigenous Council of the Tacana People (CIPTA) in Tumupasa, San Buenaventura, La Paz, and two to the Central de Pueblos Indígenas del Beni (CEPIB), in Trinidad.” These projects were financed by the Venezuelan government at a cost of over $405 million dollars (USD).

“For the Tacana people, the Upre approved in 2008 three projects of great importance for the community: the construction of a health center, a closed coliseum and a field with a shed for the only school. The management was possible thanks to the mediation of the then president of the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia (Cidob), Adolfo Chávez, recalls the current deputy mayor of Tumupasa, Sandro Limpias.

In 2008, Limpias was a cantonal agent of Tumupasa and together with the population, some 4,500 people, celebrated with great enthusiasm - according to account - the achievement for the community. 13 years have passed, since then, and there is only frustration and ruins.

"There were three works to be executed through the Upre here in Tumupasa, but unfortunately due to problems that we do not understand that the company that was awarded had had, it was delayed, they did not give their technical progress reports in due time and it seems that the Upre itself froze the funds, "the deputy mayor told ANF.

The construction company Arcoas -which has not renewed its license since 2012, according to Fundempresa-, breached the contract and despite the efforts of the local authorities before the national government for the works to be completed, they were abandoned.”

“The health module, which was the great hope for the Tacana population, to avoid trips of almost an hour and a half to San Buenaventura by car, was cut short. Today, bushes cover the half construction of the post that over the years was unusable to continue, according to the verification carried out by ANF in the place. The work only achieved a 30% progress. At the time, the Upre assigned a budget of 413,342 Bolivians for the total execution of this work.

"That health post was a great need, with environments with enough space, with their respective equipment, to be able to care for the patient, because when we have an accident or an emergency we have to transfer the patient to San Buenaventura," said Limpias.

Currently, Tumupasa has an old medical post that, due to the intervention of the municipal government, could be expanded, but it is insufficient for the region. Only one doctor and two assistants serve the 10 communities of Tumupasa, with little equipment and no medicines.

The Covid-19 pandemic affected many people in that town, but only claimed two lives. The residents preferred to treat themselves in their homes, with medicinal herbs, realizing that the medical center and the few personnel would not provide enough, without medicines or tests to diagnose the virus. "We prefer to heal ourselves at home," said Limpias.

The lack of supplies for an accurate diagnosis confused medical personnel to identify Covid-19 or dengue. The medical diagnosis, in many cases, was dengue "but the patient's health continued to deteriorate and he had to be taken to Rurrenabaque, there they detected Covid and finally had to be transferred to Trinidad to receive care," the deputy mayor recalled.

Limpias insists that the health service in the community is very precarious and they need the authorities to improve this situation. “

Indigenous people in emergency due to land subjugation

According to this Spanish-language article, “The Tsimán Moseten Regional Council (CRTM) declared” a state of “emergency due to the subjugation of the mining companies to the Community Land of Origin (TCO) of Pilón Lajas. Likewise, the Indigenous Council of the Tacana People denounced that the Tuichi and Beni rivers have been” gridded for mining. “The indigenous people demand that the Government respect their territories.”

In a decisive vote, the Tsimán Council declared a “state of emergency due to the systematic irruption that they are experiencing” because of the mining cooperatives.} They warned that they would “assume pressure measures” if “the Government continues to act arbitrarily and without consulting them.”

Navy seizes 3,645 board feet of illegal timber in the Beni River

 The Bolivian navy has seized 3,645 board feet of wood of the “Cedro” species that were illegally transported along the Beni River. “According to the institutional bulletin, the naval control operations in the Beni River are carried out in compliance with Supreme Decree No. 24453, of the General Regulation of the Forestry Law, which in its article 95, paragraph I. states that “the control of the The transport of forest products will be carried out through fixed or mobile forest control posts, which will be strategically located on the roads or points of confluence of the road or river networks.” The original Spanish-language article is here.

For International Environment Day, a broadcast of 10 films and panel discussion

Ten films related to pollution, water, migration, food security, and other topics that support actions that promote responsible consumption and curb climate change will be presented May 31-June 4 as part of the Another Way Exhibition at CCELP. A panel discussion will be held on the CCELP Facebook page on Saturday, June 5, starting at 11:00 AM. Participants will include: Samuel Sangüeza, Director of the World Wildlige Fund , Sara Crespo ( PROBIOMA ) , Jenny Gruenberge, LIDEMA Executive Coordinator , Pablo Solón, Fundación Solón and the Bolivian Observatory for Climate Change and Development; and Alex Villca, National Coordinator for the Defense of Indigenous Peasant Territories and Protected Areas of Bolivia. To view the discussion, complete the registration link here by May 30: https://bit.ly/3fkwCRA.

More information (in Spanish) here.

Madidi is the gateway for Peruvian cocaine - Bolivia News

This Spanish-language article discusses the role of Madidi in drug trafficking to Peru. “Illegal flights by Madidi are every day. Indigenous leader Alex Villca reported that there are communities on the border that lived from coca cultivation and that their production was offered in Peru, since they have no connection with the Bolivian side.” In the Madidi reserve “according to the version of reports from the Special Force to Fight Drug Trafficking (Felcn), there are narcopists, mobile cocaine laboratories and illegal coca leaf plantations.”

Drug trafficking penetrates eight protected areas with 'mega-laboratories' - Bolivia News

According to this Spanish language article, 8 of the 22 protected areas in Bolivia have been penetrated by drug trafficking. “Clandestine landing strips, mega-laboratories for the production of cocaine, illegal coca leaf plantations and plane overflights are proof that mafias operate in these areas. The Government announced that the goal is to eradicate 9,000 hectares of coca crops in these reserves and for that purpose operations and intelligence work will be carried out.” Illegal coca leaf plantations are also on the rise. “The most worrying cases are Madidi, in the north of La Paz, and the Isiboro Sécure National Park Indigenous Territory (Tipnis), which is located in Cochabamba and Beni."

In addition, “the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (Unodc) counted six protected areas with illegal coca plantations in the past administration . The Madidi case was the most worrying: there was a 171% increase in illegal plantations in this reserve compared to 2018.”

UNESCO x LVMH project provide solutions in Amazon biosphere reserves

In this recent article, a new project is discussed. “UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) programme and LVMH are working together to reconcile conservation of biodiversity with its sustainable use by implementing sustainable development respectful of local cultural contexts.

One of their joint initiatives, the Amazon programme, is addressing the direct and indirect drivers of deforestation in the Amazonian region within 8 biosphere reserves located in Bolivia (Pilón-Lajas and Beni Biosphere Reserves), Ecuador (Yasuní, Sumaco and Podocarpus-El Condor Biosphere Reserves), Brazil (Central Amazon Biosphere Reserve) and Peru (Manu and Oxapampa-Ashaninka-Yanesha Biosphere Reserves).

The programme is based on participatory and inclusive approaches, combining scientific, local and indigenous knowledge and will be implemented by the biosphere reserve teams with support from the MAB national committees, UNESCO offices and a scientific committee led by Eduardo S. Brondizio, professor at Indiana University (USA) and co-chair of the IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

Eduardo S. Brondizio explains the current situation in the Amazon region: “Fifty years of development interventions have left behind a trail of degradation and social inequalities that today converges with climate change in a devastating Covid-19 pandemic, creating one of the most complex puzzles of our time in terms of environmental governance and development. The Amazonian biosphere reserves represent one of the pieces to solve this puzzle.”

“Preventing and improving the management of fires in the biosphere reserves in order to help safeguard the ecosystems of the Amazon rainforest. For example, an initiative in the Beni Biosphere Reserve (Bolivia) aims to build a greenhouse and provide families living in 4 communities with seeds of high-quality native timber species (mahogany) and crops (plantain, coffee, cocoa and citrus) to create plots under agroforestry systems in fallows, areas traditionally used for agriculture by local people. The initiative will strengthen productors’ production, transformation and commercialization capacities while promoting a sustainable long-term economic activity.”

The article includes short videos describing the project.

San José de Uchupiamonas rejects the entry of mining cooperatives within its TCO

According to Pagina Siete, the San Jose de Uchupiamonas community issued a statement that “points to the Mining Administrative Jurisdictional Authority (AJAM) and the National Service of Protected Areas (Sernap) for having violated the rights of the population and granting concessions within the Madidi protected area.”

Through a statement, the Uchupiamona indigenous people rejected the entry of mining cooperatives into the Uchupiamona Community Land of Origin (TCO). The resolution indicates that the population will defend its territory and "in case of violence" the only person responsible will be the state, it is stated.

“We have shown that Ajam has passed over our existence, our TCO and the Madidi protected area, affecting the Tuichi river, and has violated all our rights in complicity with Sernap, having granted mining concessions, with the grid at 15 mining cooperatives, that even two of them are already in the final stage of the contract and that these cooperatives are already entering to take possession of these concessions ”, warns the document.

Among the resolutions, the indigenous population rejects the entry of cooperatives. In the second point, it is rejected that these concessions "promote the division of our territory (...)".

The last point warns that “the Uchupiamona nation before the subjugation of its territory, ignoring our existence, will ultimately defend its territory using its ancestral defense methods, and in case of violence, the only person responsible will be the State and the authorities that arbitrarily authorize the invasion of our territory ”, it concludes.”

“Weeks ago, park rangers warned about the authorization of mining concessions in the Madidi protected area.”

You can view the signed statement in its entirety here.

Madidi, the «Sistine Chapel» of nature

Identidad Madidi launched 6 years ago. “In June 2015, 28 researchers from seven recognized scientific institutions in Bolivia came together: WCS, Institute of Ecology, National Herbarium of Bolivia, National Museum of Natural History, Bolivian Collection of Fauna, Harmony and Museum of Natural History Alcide Orbigny, in coordination with the General Directorate of Biodiversity and Protected Areas (Dgpap), the National Service of Protected Areas (Sernap) and the Vice Ministry of Science and Technology.”

“Between 2015 and 2017, a group of scientists registered 1,694 new species” resulting in the identification of “9,191 species of plants, diurnal butterflies and vertebrates in the area,” including “212 new species for Bolivia and 156 potentially” new to science. These findings help “confirm that this protected area is the most biologically diverse in the world. Among other things, because it is one of the places on the planet that has an altitude difference of almost 6,000 meters, from the Amazonian forests and pampas of the Heath, at 190 meters high, to the top of the snow-capped Chaupi Orko, in the Apolobamba mountain range. , at 6,044 meters.”

The United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) just started. Ecosystem restoration means “preventing, stopping and reversing this damage, going from exploiting nature to curing it.”

“Madidi is one of …22 protected areas of Bolivia. :Located north of La Paz, it is one of the last intact sites on the planet. This natural wonder inspired the Jungle movie and also parts of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands video game. On 1.9 million hectares, it is home to more species than the entire Amazon: 10% of the world's birds, 6.8% of butterflies, 4% of mammals and 3% of the planet's plants…Madidi shelters threatened and protected species, such as the Andean bear, jaguar, londra, swamp deer, borochi, marimono, rosillo monkey, Andean condor, harpy eagle, palkachupa, black caiman and turtles. It also includes wetlands and high Andean grasslands, dry forests, mountain savannas, montane forests, Amazon forests and flooded savannas.”

“Madidi National Park and Natural Area of ​​Integrated Management was created on September 21, 1995.”

You can read more in the original Spanish-language article.

Alert for the risk of disappearance of migratory fish

In this Spanish-language article, Mongabay describes the decline of catfish and other migratory fish in rivers around the world. “Hydroelectric plants and other infrastructure works, overfishing and pollution are the main causes.”

“After more than two decades researching the Amazon, Carolina da Costa Doria, postdoctoral fellow in fisheries management at the University of Florida (United States), explains that dams disrupt the connectivity of rivers and alter the movement, feeding and reproduction of fish. fish , especially those that survive only in long stretches of fresh water, such as large migrants.

"These predators are essential to maintain the ecological balance, food and income of Amazonian families. It is necessary to maintain large free sections in the rivers and to follow the adaptation of the species to the works already implemented. The new dams will have very serious repercussions for the economies and the people who depend on these species, ”says da Costa Doria, who is now a professor at the Federal University of Rondonia.”

“Migratory fish populations have declined by 76% in various regions of the planet since the 1970s. Losses were greatest in Europe (93%) and in Latin America and the Caribbean (84%). The rates are higher than those of terrestrial and marine species.”

““Fish are important from a cultural point of view, especially for indigenous peoples; from the social, for recreation and mental health; from the economic, for fishing and other commercial activities; from the nutritional, as the world's largest source of protein; and from the ecological, to maintain biodiversity and the balance of ecosystems. There are very good reasons to protect fish for future generations ”, explains Professor Lee Baumgartner, post-doctorate in Ecology from the University of Canberra (Australia).”

“The Amazon has more than 50 migratory species , including the largest freshwater marathoner. El Dorado travels 8000 kilometers between the Andean regions and the mouth of the Amazon River. But, the great champion also suffers from human actions. The largest dorado ever recorded was almost 2 meters. Today, they are half the size.”

“In the Madeira river complex, there are plans to build the binational plant of Ribeirão, in Nova Mamoré (RO), and of Cachuela Esperanza, on the Beni river, in Bolivia. The measures adopted for the passage of fish in these structures are under permanent observation and criticism of the experts.”

“Deforestation, which amplifies the climate crisis, also complicates the multiplication of species. Changes in temperature can trigger fish migration and reproduction. This causes such events to happen at inappropriate times, for example, at times of the year when the waters are low or there is not enough food in the rivers for adults and young.”

“Fish passages are often approved without testing whether they will benefit migratory species. Studies show that these measures can be an ecological trap, even more so without qualified tools to select the best systems for certain rivers ”, says Luiz Gustavo Silva, from the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (Switzerland).”

According to Luiz Gustavo Silva, from the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (Switzerland), “Rivers without free reaches are lethal for migratory fish. Like jaguars, they are indispensable for the conservation of large spaces and many other species. There will be no truly sustainable dams with projects that continue to weigh more than all economic variables. We need to attack this scenario with more science and public debates on power generation and environmental conservation ”

Additional photos, maps, diagrams, and video can be found at the original article.