Capitanía Del Alto Y Bajo Izozog (CABI)

THEME: ENVIRONMENT

COUNTRY: BOLIVIA

SPONSOR: UNDP

PROJECT’S AREA OF FOCUS: Economic growth, rural development and community survival in the Gran Chaco of Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

PROJECT NEEDS AND BENEFICIARIES:

The Izoceño-Guaraní people – representing approximately 10,000 inhabitants in 23 communities along the banks of the Parapetí River in the Gran Chaco of Santa Cruz, Bolivia - benefit from this innovative project. CABI, a traditional pre-Hispanic organization, has explicitly promoted biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in Bolivia since the 1980s. The primary goal of CABI through this period has been to ensure equitable economic growth and the survival of the Izoceños as a people, while halting the rapidly expanding agro-industrial frontier in Bolivia’s Gran Chaco.

ACTIVITIES: The activities include:

  • CABI is responsible for co-administering the Kaa-Iya del Gran Chaco National Park and Integrated Management Area (KINP) with the government of Bolivia. KINP is one of the few national parks in the Americas created through the initiative of an indigenous people, and the only one where a traditional indigenous organization shares fundamental administrative and financial responsibilities with the national government.
  • CABI leads a successful effort with other lowland indigenous organizations to include the concept of indigenous territory as a form of land ownership recognized under Bolivia’s new agrarian reform law (Law 1715).
  • CABI’s focus on rural development will construct alternatives to the productive activities (characterized by high environmental costs—deforestation, soil degradation, habitat destruction, and species loss) that have previously dominated the regional economy
  • CABI also directs the design of a landmark agreement signed in 1997by indigenous organizations and sponsors of the Bolivia-Brazil gas pipeline (including Shell, Enron, Petrobras, and the World Bank)

EXPECTED OUTCOMES:

CABI’s successful defense of its territories, through the creation of the KINP and the titling of the Izoceño indigenous lands, guarantees the people’s land ownership and continued access to natural resources. The structure of CABI facilitates a more equitable distribution of benefits (through, for example, employment and development projects) across the 23 communities, and maintains communal access to natural resources without restrictions or boundaries between communities.

CABI’s vision and long-term commitment has been instrumental in the creation of the 3.4 million hectare Kaa-Iya del Gran Chaco National Park and Integrated Management Area (KINP). The KINP protects the most intact and most biodiverse portion of the Gran Chaco, an ecoregion shared with Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. The KINP has, so far, raised the proportion of the Gran Chaco ecosystem under protection to 4%, and protects approximately 20% of the Bolivian Chaco.

CABI expects to reduce poverty and attain sustainable development via further rural development and equitable economic growth.

MESSAGE FROM THE PROJECT:

Through the successful management of the KINP national park, CABI is able to ensure the well-being of indigenous peoples while at the same time preserving the biodiversity of the forests that are their traditional home.