Bolivia
Bolivia's Tropical Lowland Forests
In Bolivia, researchers from CIPEC have teamed up with colleagues at the Center for the Study of Economic and Social Reality (CERES) to study a variety of local governance institutions related to forest use in the country's Lowlands. The research is driven by the search for answers to one overarching question: What characteristics of human institutions help explain why some local governance systems have been able to preserve their forest resources over time, while others have not?
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Community workshop in San Lorenzoma, San Rafael Municipality, Santa Cruz Department. In 2000, this community started managing its forest for timber according to a forest management plan. In its first year of harvesting, the community generated a net income of USD 3000. |
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The CIPEC-team researchers address this question at two complementary levels of
analysis. On one level, researchers use the IFRI research protocol to study the
local institutions with rural, forest-dwelling communities. Moving up one level
of aggregation, the municipal governance research project focuses on the
governance institutions that govern the relations between the forest user
communities and the local government.
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Data for imagery training samples
collected by Eduardo Silva (left) and Krister Andersson in a forest just outside
the San Buenaventura in the Department of La Paz. |
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A marked seed tree, displayed by two community members of San Juancito in the municipality of San Ignacio de Velasco, Santa Cruz, which recently had their forest management plan approved by the government |
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IFRI and the Yuracaré
Located on 250,000 hectares in the Chapare River watershed
in the Department of Cochabamba, the Yuracaré are one of
approximately thirty-five indigenous groups.
Through their research, IFRI colleagues at CERES have shown
that the Yuracaré manage the forest in a way that increases
the number and size of fruiting trees, even when controlling
for population density, access to markets, and moisture
gradients. The IFRI research documented the existence of
higher-than-expected numbers of fruiting trees because of
Yuracaré practices. The Yuracaré plant and tend such trees
around their settlements because these trees bear the fruit
that attract the game that forms an essential part of their
diet and world view.
Thanks to CERES research, the Yuracaré received official
land titles to their territory (1996) and a forest
management plan was developed based on the variables
measured by the IFRI protocol. In 1998, the forest
management plan was later approved by the Bolivian
government, marking the first time in Bolivian history that
an indigenous group was granted concessionary forest
management rights.
Source: Andersson and Ortiz, 1996; Becker and Leon, 2000
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The IFRI Research Program
Bolivia was one of the first countries in the World to carry out an IFRI study. In 1994, the first set of studies were completed in the forests of the Yuracaré (see text box) and the Isiboro Secure - two indigenous territories in the Lowland tropical rainforest with a long history of diverse forest usage.
Bolivia was one of the first countries in the World to carry out an IFRI study. In 1994, the first set of studies were completed in two different indigenous territories in the Lowland rainforest: the Yuracaré (see text box) and the Isiboro Secure. Later, a third site was added to study the relationship between local communities and forests that co-exist within the Tariquía National Flora and Fauna Reserve in the Southern part of Bolivia (see map below).
IFRI Sites in Bolivia 1993-2002
Source: Andersson and Ortiz, 1996; Becker and Leon, 2000
What Makes Municipal Forest Governance Work?
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Bolivia is known as one of the most decentralized countries in Latin America. The political and administrative decentralization was launched in the early 1990s and emphasized the role of municipal governments in several sectors, including forestry.
The Bolivian decentralization experiment provides a fascinating field laboratory for learning about the conditions that support and hinder the performance of local forest governance systems. CIPEC researchers engage in comparative analysis of different municipalities' forestry experiences to learn about the institutional conditions that allow some to perform better than others.
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In each selected case study site in the Municipal Forest Governance
Project, forest users are invited to one-day workshops where their
forest use and interactions with other users and organizations are
discussed. This picture was taken at such a workshop in Buena Vista,
Santa Cruz, in April of 2001. |
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Research Questions:
So far, the CIPEC research efforts have focused on two questions:
- What motivates municipal governments to invest in forestry
sector activities?
- What makes the forestry-related services in some
municipalities more effective than in others?
Methods
To answer these questions, the research team employs a wide variety of tools and methods. First, in-depth personal interviews were carried out with the mayors and other municipal government actors in 100 randomly selected municipalities (see map below).
Selected Municipalities in Bolivia (n=100)
Second, based on the results of the surveys, six "critical cases" were selected for qualitative case analysis to examine the hypothesized drivers of municipal governance performance.
Preliminary Results
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After two years of intensive fieldwork, several preliminary findings are emerging. On the issue of municipal government motivation to engage in forestry activities, we have found that political pressure is often more decisive than the financial incentives from the central government (Andersson, 2003).
Once municipal actors are motivated to provide some forestry-related services, their effectiveness, we have found, seems closely associated with how well these actors communicate and cooperate with each other in the sector. We have seen that few municipal administrations have sufficient financial and human resources to perform well by themselves (Andersson and Pacheco, 2003).
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| Forest measurements using the IFRI research protocol in the Yuracare Indigenous Reserve.
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Publications:
Andersson, K. (Forthcoming). Who Talks With Whom? The Role of Repeated
Interactions in Decentralized Forest Governance. World Development Vol.
32(2), (February 2004).
Andersson, K. P. and H. Ortiz C. 1996. FAO and Indigenous People. Unasylva Vol 47 (186). 1996/3, pp. 28-32
Becker, C., and R. León. 2000. Indigenous Forest Management in the Bolivian Amazon: Lessons from the Yuracaré People. In C. Gibson, M. McKean, and E. Ostrom, eds. People and Forests: Communities, Institutions, and Governance. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Andersson, K. P. 2002. Can Decentralization Save Bolivia's Forests? Ph. D. Diss. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University.
Andersson, K. P. and M. Janssen, 2002. Institutional Innovation and Adaptive Management: Learning from Bolivia's Decentralization Experiment. Paper presented at NATO ARW. Krakow, Poland. Nov, 2002.
Andersson, K. 2003. What Motivates Municipal Governments? Uncovering the Institutional Incentives for Municipal Governance of Forest Resources in Bolivia. Journal of Environment and Development, Vol 12 (1): 5-27
Andersson, K. P. and D. Pacheco, 2003. ¿Quién dinamiza la co-gestión forestal? Documento presentado en la 2da Conferencia Internacional sobre "Procesos Participativos en Areas Forestales. Valdivia, Chile, abril, 2003.
Contact Information:
For additional information about CIPEC's research in Bolivia, please contact:
Krister Andersson (kanderss@indiana.edu) or Diego Pacheco (dipachec@indiana.edu)
For information on IFRI research in Bolivia, please contact Rosario Leon at CERES (ftpp-fao@albatros.cnb.net)
408 North Indiana Avenue, Bloomington, IN 47408-3799
Phone: (812) 855-2230
TDD: (812) 855-7654
Fax: (812) 855-2634
Last Updated: May 11, 2005
Comments: cipec@indiana.edu
Copyright
2005, The Trustees of Indiana
University.
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