Previous PageTable Of ContentsNext Page


Mountains: source
of life - Bolivia:
doing justice
to its culture

J. Escobedo and C. Miranda

Javier Escobedo is Chief Technical
Adviser of the FAO project "Participatory
Upland Conservation and Development",
Samaipata, Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

Carmen Miranda is National Coordinator
of the Bolivian Comittee of the World
Conservation Union (IUCN), La Paz, Bolivia.

The title of this article is Bolivia's slogan for the International Year of Mountains 2002 (IYM), which indicates the importance this country attaches to its mountainous regions.

The town of Coroico, Province of Nor Yungas, Department of La Paz, Bolivia

- W. KENNING

About 40 percent of Bolivia's total area (1 089 581 km2) is mountainous, and the mountains are home to 60 percent of the country's population (a total of approximately 8 million inhabitants).

Of the 14 defined ecoregions in Bolivia (see Map), eight are in mountainous areas (over 600 m above sea level). Five of these regions are located in the Andean mountain zone:

Three are located in the eastern mountain areas:

Natural resources in mountain areas

Bolivia's Minister for Sustainable Development articulated the critical importance of the country's mountain resources at the national inauguration of the IYM: "Since most Bolivians live in high, mountainous regions and depend on the resources of these regions, it is vital that the conservation, management and development of these resources be stepped up in order to ensure the survival of future generations."

The eastern slopes of the Andes, covered with rain forests, are recognized as among the world's most diverse regions. The Andean people make important use of agrobiodiversity and have domesticated numerous animal species, including the llama, and important plant species, such as the potato.

Overuse and/or natural resource degradation resulting from agriculture, forestry, mining and oil exploration have led to the deterioration of the production base in mountainous areas. It is estimated that the potential for water erosion is high or very high in 59.2 percent of the country and that soil salinization resulting from inappropriate use of irrigation practices affects 30 to 40 percent of areas under irrigation.

Bolivia's mountains have abundant and strategic water resources for providing electrical energy. The hydroenergy potential is estimated at 18 000 MW, giving an annual output of 90 000 million KW-hours. Current output provides only 1.4 percent of requirements.

Mountain culture and tourism

Bolivia is a multi-ethnic and multicultural country. The mountain regions are home to two major cultural groups: the Aymaras and Quechuas, which together make up the Andean culture, in the western zone; and the Tupiguaranís in the eastern zone.

The Aymara and Quechua peoples are separated by linguistic differences but in general share a single Andean culture, which varies locally according to external and internal influences that have affected language, religion, natural resources and social, economic and political life. The Aymara farmers live in the most highly populated part of the northern high plateau, in the valleys, the Yungas of La Paz, the high plateaus of Oruro and Potosí and part of Tapacarí Province in the department of Cochabamba. The Quechuas, on the other hand, have a very influential cultural role not only in Bolivia, but throughout the Andean part of South America. In Bolivia they extend as far as the Cochabamba valleys, the mining districts of Oruro and Potosí, north of La Paz, and the Santa Cruz settlement area.

The Tupiguaraní group is associated with the eastern rangelands (Santa Cruz). With the passage of time, many of the Guaranís' original cultural features have been lost through adoption of the characteristics of other ethnic groups. Today, it is possible to recognize cultural trends that are derived from the Chiquitanos (Chaco region) and the Ayore-Morotoco. The Chiquitanos (totalling approximately 45 000 persons) and the Ayores (1 800) have one of the most complete and widely disseminated languages of the continent's central region.

With Bolivia's invaluable cultural and natural heritage, the still unrealized potential for tourism development in the mountains is considerable. The government has thus chosen tourism as one of the country's strategic lines of development.

Socio-economics and demography

Bolivia is a very poor country. The 1992 national census showed that 69.8 percent of households failed to meet their basic requirements, with poverty greatest in the mountainous areas.

The people of the high plateaus and the valleys are typically smallholders. In the more highly populated areas, increased land and resource pressure results in low productivity, food insecurity, underemployment and environmental degradation. Nevertheless, these are the areas that carry the burden of food production and mining operations.

There is a high rate of migration from the western mountainous areas to the eastern zones. Urban growth is also accelerating as a result of increased migratory flows from the mountains. The rate of migration from rural to urban areas in the period 1985 to 1989 reached 6.9 percent in the major cities.

Policies and strategies for mountain development

It is paradoxical that it is in the mountains, with their greater potential in terms of natural resources, especially water and minerals, that poverty and food insecurity are greatest. Bolivia has no specific sustainable development policy and strategy for its mountain regions. However, as these regions have the highest rates of poverty and natural resource degradation, they implicitly come under the sectoral policies and strategies of the Bolivian Strategy to Combat Poverty. The strategy includes a plan of action based on "measures for sustainable living", which involve giving the mountain people more opportunities for sustainable and equal access to natural and socio-economic resources and social and production infrastructure. The four strategic components of the strategy are to help the poor by:

Cross-cutting themes include development with identity, equity, sustainable management of natural resources and environmental conservation.

The International Year of Mountains in Bolivia

Officially launched on 11 December 2001, activities for the International Year of Mountains in Bolivia are designed to deal with three main themes: natural resource management, agricul-ture and forestry, and tourism and culture.

Relief map of Bolivia

Bolivia's IYM Action Plan sets out the vision and the objectives for the future. The vision for 2010 is that sustainable mountain management will help to reduce poverty among Bolivia's people, who will participate actively in appropriate natural resource use and in preserving the country's cultural and natural heritage. The strategy is to establish the technical, institutional and social bases for sustainable mountain development.

Specific objectives of the IYM in Bolivia are:

The objectives will be pursued through the following lines of action:

So far, the greatest success of the IYM preparations is the mobilization of institutions around these objectives, with their own funds or with funds pledged by FAO, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the World Conservation Union (IUCN).

Vigorous efforts will be made to set up a body for coordinating and sharing experiences in the long term, thereby ensuring the sustainability of the IYM - 2002 activities and extending successes into ongoing policies and actions in mountain areas.


Previous PageTop Of PageNext Page