New book: "CONVERSATIONS WITH RUTH ALIPAZ CUQUI"

A new book by Jose Luis Saavedra, published by Kamake Publishing House features the work of Ruth Alipaz Cuqui. The book is based on a “series of conversations with the most important indigenous leader of contemporary Bolivia: Ruth Alipaz Cuqui, who is originally from the Uchupiamona nation and currently a member of the leadership of the National Coordinator for the Defense of Indigenous Peasant Territories and Protected Areas of Bolivia (CONTIOCAP).” The primary content is: “fundamentally the struggles and mobilizations led by indigenous peoples and communities in and for the defense of water, territory and life. And why this struggle, for the radicalization of modern colonial and capitalist extractivism that was adopted -in Bolivia- both by the MASist regime and by the group of transnational companies that, with everything and nationalization, continue to operate in the country and plunder -with impunity - our natural resources and common goods.”

Through these conversations, the history of how “mobilizations led by the women leaders of the territorial resistance…managed - practically - to paralyze the extractive megaprojects so eagerly promoted by the government of President Evo” is shared. “These marvelous indigenous victories are therefore extremely important since, in fact, the MAS government - with all its repressive force - has not been able to build the mega hydroelectric plants in Bala Chepete, or in Rositas; Nor has it been able to build the trans-coca highway through the TIPNIS and, most importantly, it has not been able to enter the Tariquia Reserve.”

Given that the Bolivian government has issued a call for technical design proposals for the proposed El Bala and Chepete megadams by the end of July 2021, these battles are not yet over. (see previous news item).

For more information about the new book, see this Spanish-language article.

Technical design study going forward for Chepete and El Bala megadams!

According to this Spanish language article, "Bolivian generator Ende Corani launched a tender to advance the pre-investment technical design study for the El Bala hydroelectric project, which would be located in La Paz and Beni departments. The state firm's contract includes carrying out complementary geological and geotechnical studies at the Chepete and El Bala sites, according to the call notice. The deadline for submitting bids is July 26."

Soil Conservation Day: LVDM broadcast "Environmental and Territorial Defenses in Latin America"

In commemoration of International Soil Conservation Day, Alex Villca participated in an international panel broadcast on Youtube and Facebook on July 7. The session focused on “exchanging views, reflections and worldviews from different parts of Latin America on the processes of struggle, defense and protection of the environment.”

“Alex Villca (Bolivia), spokesperson for the National Coordinator for the Defense of Indigenous and Peasant Territories and Green Areas…affirmed “it is up to civil society and indigenous peoples in particular, to prepare much more, to learn more about the normative and legal issue. In the case of Bolivia, we have an exquisite Constitution, which in almost 100 articles talks about the rights of indigenous peoples and nature, but how much is fulfilled from all that normative framework, how much is fulfilled with international agreements. Practically nothing".

You can view the original news report, and the video of the session here.

Never Again: Park Ranger’s Childhood Pledge to Protect Jaguars

Marcos Uzquiano (head of protection at Madidi National Park) is featured in a recent Forbes article about poaching of jaguars.

“According to the IUCN, there are between 130,000 and 208,000 jaguars left in the wild, with 2,000-3,000 of those in Bolivia…It was in 2014, as chief of Zone B of Madidi National Park that Uzquiano first heard rumors of the trafficking of fangs and other parts of the jaguar…” He then started a “a monitoring and research program to learn more about this new threat to the jaguar, to find out if it was true or not, who was trafficking parts of the jaguar and why.” Their efforts resulted in location and capture of a Chinese citizen who was buying jaguar fangs in Bolivia to sell in China. A documentary, Tigre Gente, shows footage of the investigation and capture.

Marcos is quoted in the article as stating: "Bolivia was the first and perhaps only country in the region so far to have developed policies public, plans and specific strategies for the conservation of the jaguar and the head-on fight against wildlife trafficking.”

“Uzquiano says it is important that the scientists in Bolivia play a key role in finding conservation solutions.

"They have a greater roots, belonging, and extensive knowledge of natural values and cultural, biodiversity and cosmovision (way of looking at the world)," he says, adding that other countries can also actively participate in the development of specific case studies, programs and strategies aimed at finding solutions to the problem at hand.”

The pandemic does not stop deforestation in the Amazon, leaders demand action

According to this Spanish-language article, “despite the pandemic, deforestation persists in the Amazon and the risk of going through fires similar to those of 2019 and 2020 is also increasing.”

The indigenous leader and representative of the National Coordinator for the Defense of Indigenous Peasant and Protected Areas of Bolivia (Contiocap), Álex Villca noted that… during “2019 and 2020 (Bolivia)… lost around 10 million hectares of forests and grasslands that correspond to the Amazon basin. And more than 5 million lives that have been burned, not counting microorganisms,

“During the international conference "Right to protect the environment", Villca stressed that it is the indigenous peoples who directly feel the impacts of fires and deforestation in the Amazon for different activities, for which it is urgent "to achieve an articulation between the institutions and leaders in resistance ”.

”The indigenous leader Ruth Alipaz of Contiocap, also demanded respect and protection of the environment and indigenous peoples. "They were 15 years of struggle, of defending the rights of nature and facing the fact that while an armored image was being exported as a country defending Mother Earth and indigenous peoples, their rights were violated at the national level," the activist said.

New evidence connects to dams

According to this Spanish-language article, “Insects are the largest group of animals on the planet. An estimate of 5.5 million species has been made , 80% of which have not yet been found... Insects play every imaginable role in the ecosystem, including pollinating crops, controlling insects, and feeding other animals. The possible consequences of its fall are so dire that it is called a "pest catastrophe."

Over the past 20 years, there has been a “generalized decrease in insect numbers in all groups of aquatic insects studied, including mosquitoes, mayflies, and dragonflies.” At the same time, there has been an “increase in the number of invasive fish and a very unbalanced water chemistry, all environmental changes related to the construction of dams…dams block the flow of sediment and nutrients, alter the chemistry of the water, and make the water more transparent. Most aquatic insects are subject to camouflage in dark or dark water. The increased transparency of the water weakened their ability to hide and they were more vulnerable to being eaten by invasive fish.”

Finding fangs: new film exposes illicit trade killing off Bolivia’s iconic jaguar

A new “undercover documentary investigates the trafficking of Latin America’s big cat to meet demand in China.”

”jaguar fangs sent by Chinese citizens to addresses in China” are “contributing to a decline in the population of Latin America’s iconic big cat. There are between 64,000 and 170,000 jaguars left in the world, a fraction of their previous population number, earning them a place on the IUCN’s red list as near threatened. Habitat loss, human-wildlife conflict and local pet and skin markets, as well as trafficking, have all contributed to the drop in numbers.”

The movie, “Tigre Gente… show a Bolivian park ranger and a young Hong Kong journalist who goes undercover to investigate the trade in jaguar fangs.” It “premieres at the Tribeca film festival this month.”

“One of the stars of the film is Marcos Uzquiano, director of Madidi national park, who leads a team of rangers on the hunt for poachers who kill jaguars for their teeth and pelts to sell for a few hundred dollars on the hidden market. Uzquiano, born and raised around the park, which has one of the continent’s healthiest jaguar populations, shares Unger’s awe and respect for the big cat. He calls it a “symbol of life and strength”, which holds a mythical status for the local people.”

“On the other side of the world in east Asia, the body parts of big cats have historically been used in traditional Chinese medicine. Today, jaguars and their body parts are still being trafficked in dangerously high numbers.”

“A study of jaguar trafficking between 2012 and 2018 published in the journal Conservation Biology last year found that “jaguar seizures increased over time, and most of the seized jaguar pieces were canines”. About 34% of the jaguar-part seizure reports were linked with China.”

In a subsequent Salon interview, we learn that “Chinese demand does not stem from wanting to kill wildlife for the sake of destroying and consuming it. It really comes from a place of respect and appreciation for these animals, that by consuming or using a product from their body, they are honoring this animal. The issue, however, is the amount of misinformation on the demand side regarding how these wildlife products are sourced. Some Chinese people believe, as you saw in the film, that these animals die naturally and their parts are harvested as not to let them go to waste. Some are simply uninformed and honestly don't think to ask these types of questions.”

You can learn more in the original Guardian article and a separate interview for Salon. The film is available to stream on demand through June 23 here.

UN Rapporteur on Human Rights will participate in a public conference in Bolivia

On Tuesday, June 15, the International Conference "The Right to Protect the Environment" will take place, with the… participation of David R. Boyd, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment.”

CEDIB’s (Documentation and Information Center Bolivia) press release noted that “after a decade of intensification of extractive activities in our country, conflicts related to the environment and vital resources such as water have increased exponentially.”

“in the Third Cycle of the Universal Periodic Review of Human Rights of the Bolivian state…human rights violations were reported…several recommendations were issued related to the situation of Human Rights Defenders, the environment, Indigenous Peoples and the right to adequate food, in the context of extractive activities.”

“Social leaders and environmental defenders Alex Villca and Ruth Alipaz, who were also part of the delegation that was in charge, in October 2019, in Geneva, of the socialization actions of the reports on Bolivia” will be participating on June 15.

“The Conference will take place on Tuesday June 15 in virtual format, from Hrs. 9:00 am to 11:30 am. Participation will be free through the zoom platform, and live broadcasts through the CEDIB Facebook and You Tube accounts ( https://www.facebook.com/events/181982717182174?ref=newsfeed ).”

The original Spanish-language article is available here.

Website launched to disseminate research on the Madidi protected area

According to this Spanish-language article in Pagina Siete, “After six years of research and 1,604 species identified, Identidad Madidi launched a website to publish its scientific material, achievements in figures, the description of new species and information to strengthen the image of that national park.”

“The seven institutions that are part of this project are: WCS, Institute of Ecology, National Herbarium of Bolivia, National Museum of Natural History, Bolivian Collection of Fauna, Harmony and the Museum of Natural History Alcides d'Orbigny, in coordination with the Directorate General of Biodiversity and Protected Areas (Dgbap), Sernap and the Vice Ministry of Science and Technology.”

“On the new website, the Internet user can review the expeditions, biodiversity, meet the technical team, the ecosystems explored and the scientific reports produced.”

The new website is here.

CEDIB alerts: progress of mining on Madidi is linked to the "dismantling" of protection units

According to this Spanish-language article, “the Bolivian Documentation and Information Center (Cedib) warns “the advance of mining on Madidi is…linked to a process of dismantling national protection units, such as protected areas and indigenous territories.”

“We have been able to demonstrate, in several cases, that the implemented policies are aimed at weakening the protection character of our protected areas, in favor of extractivism, using, for this, the instruments and tools that should guarantee the fulfillment of the objectives. creation of these reserves ”, says the Cedib researcher, Jorge Campanini.

One of these instruments, according to Campanini, is the Management Plan, a tool that must manage compliance with the regulations and that the National Service for Protected Areas (Sernap) should fully defend and apply.”

““Unfortunately the opposite happens and it can be evidenced, in the case of Madidi, that there are applications for mining rights in areas where there should be no anthropic activities, the most affected area being the one that responds to the strict protection nature and where the requests and procedures of granting go through without any qualms.

Theoretically, the researcher says that the Madidi National Park and Natural Area of ​​Integrated Management (PNANMI) has a new management plan, which was financed, executed and put into operation since 2014 and is unknown to civil society.

"It is urgent to know what have been the modifications of this new plan in relation to the one of 2006 and what have been the changes regarding the nature of protection and conservation", questioned Campanini.”

“It points out that the Madidi had an extensive area zoned as a strict protection or core zone and it was evident that the mining advance has not considered any protection parameter.

"It is worth mentioning that as Cedib we verified that the mining requests and requests, until 2018, not only affected the Tuichi, but several points within the area, including areas where extractive activities would be prohibited," he says.

This situation, according to the researcher, shows that there is no will of the authorities to protect biodiversity, even less, human rights.”

“100 percent of the Tuichi River that is located inside the Madidi National Park and Integrated Management Natural Area, and that is part of the Uchupiamona Community Land of Origin (TCO) has been squared by the Mining Administrative Jurisdictional Authority (AJAM) to gold mining, in one of the most biodiverse protected areas on the planet.

“Between May 13 and 14, the TCO representative had to be elected in assembly and that was when we found out that the entire Tuichi River is under concession, with mining rights. "One hundred percent is within the Madidi National Park, the most mega-diverse protected area in the world," says indigenous leader Ruth Alípaz to Brújula Digital.

Alípaz Cuqui, who vehemently defends his territory, affirms that the magistrate has alerted the assembly that two cooperatives dedicated to the exploitation of alluvial gold are about to enter Madidi, from Yucumo and Caranavi.”

The complaint joins the voices of the Madidi park rangers, who called the newsroom of this medium to alert about the presence of gold dredgers in the vicinity of the Protected Area.

"There is an attack with authorizations from the AJAM and the National Service of Protected Areas (Sernap) for the mining companies to enter," says the indigenous woman, who sided with the defense of her territory.

At this stage, it indicates that the mining presence that was installed in the first instance in the main rivers of the Amazon such as the Kaka, Beni and others, today have branched out to rivers that are within Protected Areas and indigenous territories, without the permission of their habitants; that is, without complying with the prior, free and informed consultation.”

““They are branching from the rivers to the tributaries such as the Tuichi and the Quiquibey, it is a silent middle entrance, these organizations are the operators that act agilely and underhandedly, and there is no Government, there is no State present, and we know that this responds that the pandemic would be the perfect excuse to justify these activities in indigenous territories, in Protected Areas ”, he says.

The Amazonian river Tuichi has a length of 265 kilometers and is located within the Madidi; It is located north of the department of La Paz. It is born from the confluence of several tributaries at a height of 1,070 meters above sea level and follows a northwesterly course, then runs southeast until it empties into the Beni River.”