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| Popular protests opposed the highway through Amazon |
By World War 4 Report, October 11, 2011
Bolivia's Chamber of Deputies voted Oct. 11 to approve President Evo
Morales' decision to halt a controversial road project through the country's
eastern Amazon rainforest in order to consult with the local population.
Chamber of Deputies president Héctor Arce said halting the project would open
the way for an "informed dialogue" with the affected communities.
Despite the vote—and a police attack on their camp last month—indigenous
protesters who oppose the highway project said they would continue their
cross-country march on La Paz. The march, numbering some 2,000, has advanced
within 100 kilometers of La Paz, but has slowed in recent days, the lowland
rainforest inhabitants being unaccustomed to the cold weather and thin air of
the altiplano. March leaders said they would probably not arrive until next
week, to allow this weekend's judicial elections to go ahead without
interference. A march of counter-protesters in expected in La Paz tomorrow. (AFP, InfoBAE, Argentina,
Oct. 11)
In an embarrassment for Morales, his former UN ambassador Pablo Solón
Romero—who served as coordinator of last year's Cochabamba
climate summit—wrote an
open letter to the president protesting the repression of the march:
Since 2006, Bolivia has shown leadership to the world on how to tackle
the most profound challenges of our time. We have achieved the approval of the
Human Right to Water and Sanitation in the United Nations and promoted a vision
for society based on Living Well [Vivir Bien, a Morales slogan] rather than
consuming more.
However there must be coherence between what we do and what we say.
One cannot speak of defending Mother Earth and at the same time promote the
construction of a road that will harm Mother Earth, doesn’t respect indigenous
rights and violates human rights in an "unforgiveable" way.
As the country that initiated the International Day of Mother Earth,
we have a profound responsibility to be an example on the global stage. We
cannot repeat the same recipes of failed "developmentalism" that has
already brought the relationship between humanity and Mother Earth to breaking
point
It is incomprehensible that we promote a World Conference on
Indigenous Peoples at the United Nations in 2014 if we don’t lead the way in
applying the principle of "informed, free and prior consent" for
indigenous peoples in our own country...
It’s not too late to resolve this crisis if we suspend permanently the
construction of the road trough the TIPNIS, bring to justice those responsible
for the repression to the indigenous march, and open up a broad and
participatory national and regional debate to define a new agenda of actions in
the framework of the Living Well. [Upside Down World,
Oct. 5]
Whither REDD?
Solón
admitted that the "Eighth Indigenous March," as the mobilization is
known, "has some incoherent and incorrect demands such as those related to
hydrocarbons and the sale of forest carbon credits that look to commodify
Mother Earth (known as REDD). However their concern for the impacts of the
construction of this road is just." (UDW, op cit)
The Morales administration has harshly criticized the marchers' demand
that the government "recognize the right of indigenous peoples in Bolivia
to receive a compensation for the mitigation of greenhouse gases due to the
environmental function of indigenous territories." This notion of
receiving payment for carbon capture by forests is enshrined in the Reduction of
Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) mechanism, currently being designed within the UN
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Critics call the REDD a commodification of
forests that will ultimately undermine indigenous rights. The demand may have
emerged from elements of the CIDOB, the indigenous organization leading the
march, who are involved in pilot REDD projects funded by the Friends of Nature
Foundation (FAN, by its Spanish acronym), an NGO active in the
Bolivian Amazon. (Latin America Bureau,
Sept. 26)
But the Morales government itself has resisted pressure to withdraw
from REDD programs. In 1997 three energy giants—American Electric Power (AEP), BP-Amoco (BP), and Pacificorp—entered
into a REDD agreement with Bolivia. In return for $10 million invested in
protection of an area of rainforest for 30 years, the companies were to be
allocated "carbon offsets"
(basically, pollution rights). The fruit of this agreement is the Noel Kempff
Climate Action Project (NKCAP), brainchild of
FAN and The Nature Conservancy (PDF). The project
doubled the size of the Noel Kempff Mercado National Park (Santa Cruz department), but Greenpeace slammed it as a
"carbon scam," pointing to the phenomenon of "leakage"—that
is, tree-felling merely being pushed beyond the borders of the park. Greenpeace
has called for eliminating "sub-national" REDD projects—meaning that
unless a nation as a whole cuts deforestation, then nobody gets any carbon
credits. (The Guardian, March
11, 2010; REDD Monitor, Oct.
22, 2009; Greenpeace, Oct. 15,
2009)
Right
opposition exploits indigenous struggle
Last week, some 100 Bolivians held a protest outside the White House
in Washington against the road project, that would cut through the TIPNIS
indigenous reserve. But their signs attacked Evo Morales as a dictator,
assassin, and narco-trafficker, and assailed the planned road as "Evo's
cocaine highway." Protest leaders were apparently wealthy emigres from
Santa Cruz department who support the right-wing opposition. Morales has
repeatedly pointed out that his conservative opponents who bitterly rejected
his initiatives to protect indigenous rights, have suddenly become
"TIPNIStas." (NACLA News, Oct. 7)
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