Between Justice and Extractivism: Lowland Social Movement Challenges to Bolivia’s New Development Plan

• In Event: Climate of Change? Extractive Politics, Indigenous Environmental Governance and Climate Change in Ecuador and Bolivia

Abstract

Bolivian President Evo Morales was elected in 2005 with the promise to both decolonize the nation state and to reclaim control of private industries. In his first years as President, he proposed radical changes from nationalizing oil and gas to radically restructuring land relations and the use of land. Adopting strategies from diverse social movements across the country, Morales used tropes and performances of indigeneity to reclaim control over key industries and fight for national sovereignty. One of his battles (early in his Presidency) became holding Northern nations accountable for their CO2 emissions and exacerbating what he called “the climate crisis.” He posited a “climate debt” whereby money would flow from North to South to pay for the adaptation and mitigation programs. Morales became known internationally for his stance on global climate change, arguing that global capitalism is the cause of climate change, and indigenous values such as vivir bien are the solution. Despite the discourse of “climate justice” and “vivir bien,” however, it has become ever-more apparent that Bolivia will continue to rely upon extractive industries and agribusiness as a strategy for redistributive government programming and national economic development. This has led many Bolivians to question whether these policies ultimately undermine these utopian visions and exacerbate the climate crisis at home.

This paper looks at the ways in which social movements have addressed environmental problems historically and more recently climate change/climate justice in relationship to the Morales state. We consider Bolivia’s new Plan Patriótica 2025, which establishes a development plan for the future based on mining, hydrocarbon extraction, energy export, and the expansion of the agricultural frontier. The paper looks primarily at lowland social movements, which, while initially providing alternative visions of autonomy and land-holding patterns, have begun to embrace the benefits of “large-scale” and extractivist development as well. Further, the material realities of climate change provide a provocative backdrop to this “consensus” model because excessive flooding in the lowlands pose a daily and on-going threat to the agribusiness model of development and to Bolivia’s hopes to become sovereign in terms of food production.

Authors

• Nancy G Postero, University of California/San Diego

• Nicole W Fabricant, Towson University