Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Conservation of Settled Territories in the Bolivian Amazon

Abstract

Landscapes settled by indigenous communities represent nuanced inter-relationships between culture and environment, where balance is achieved through Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS). Through IKS, native peoples worldwide live, farm, and consume resources in a manner that is responsive to natural systems and, as such, their lands present less deforestation and more sustainable production per capita than is exhibited by non-indigenous practices. In Bolivia, the Origin Farmer Indigenous Territory (TIOC) communities of Yaminahua-Machineri and Takana-Cavineño, located in the North Amazon, are facing external threats of non-indigenous anthropogenic land use change, such as road-building and industrial-scale resource extraction. In order to understand the potential environmental and cultural loss to these territories, the present work seeks to determine the present, base-line conservation state within these Bolivian communities, and forecast land use change and its consequences until the year 2030. This was undertaken using a three-stage protocol: (a) the TIOC communities’ current forest-based livelihoods, characteristics and management were determined using on-site observation techniques and extensive literature review; (b) the historical land use change (LUC) from natural vegetation to anthropogenic use was estimated using multitemporal satellite imagery; and, finally, (c) geographically explicit non-indigenous anthropogenic land-use change threat was extrapolated until 2030 using the GEOMOD modeler from the TerraSet software. Preliminary results show that both TIOCs case-sites are fairly conserved due to their forest dependence. However, deforestation and degradation could be evidenced, particularly within TIOC areas not officially recognized by the central government, due to pressures from surrounding, new non-indigenous settlements, road infrastructure, connection to markets, and the threat of the oil exploitation. Projected LUC suggest serious threats to the unrecognized TIOC areas if community governance is not reinforced, and if extractivist and non-indigenous development patterns continue to be promoted by state and central government.

The Sedentary Process and the Evolution of Energy Consumption in Eight Native American Dwellings: Analyzing Sustainability in Traditional Architecture

“…These stories indicate that Native American Indians deeply knew how their surrounding environment worked, and that fact let them use the resources at their disposal in a respectful and efficient way. Moreover, as can be seen in the research developed by César J. Pérez and Carl A. Smith [90], the indigenous techniques, the so-called Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), which often underlay these old stories, can be very useful for the environment protection at present.…”

Revisión Sistemática sobre la consulta previa como mecanismo para la protección de los derechos de las comunidades nativas

“…Para comprender la posible pérdida ambiental y cultural de estos territorios, el presente trabajo busca determinar el estado de conservación actual de referencia dentro de estas comunidades bolivianas y pronosticar el cambio de uso de la tierra y sus consecuencias hasta el año 2030. (Pérez & Smith, 2019). Por lo tanto, frenar la deforestación en territorios indígenas debe ser una prioridad para el gobierno brasileño para asegurar los derechos territoriales de estos pueblos, garantizar la protección de los bosques y regular el clima global.…”

“…(Zuleta Zuleta & Romero-Cárdenas, 2020) En Bolivia, las comunidades del Territorio Indígena Campesino de Origen (TIOC) de Yaminahua-Machineri y Takana-Cavineño, ubicadas en el norte de la Amazonia, enfrentan amenazas externas de cambios antropogénicos no indígenas en el uso de la tierra, como la construcción de carreteras y la explotación de recursos a escala industrial y extracción. (Pérez & Smith, 2019). El valor de la tierra es generado por la economía política y la imaginación social de sus habitantes.…”

Drones and Geographical Information Technologies in Agroecology and Organic Farming Contributions to Technological Sovereignty

“…Moreover, combination with other spatial data concerning exploitative activities, future projects, and environmental variables (slope, elevation, soil types, etc.) are useful for carrying out environmental and statistical modeling analysis, in order to predict future scenarios, patterns of landuse change, and associated impacts (Lopez and Sierra, 2010;Vijay et al, 2018;Pérez and Smith, 2019;Laue and Arima, 2016).…”