Living Land

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The continuing fight for the rights of

Pachamama — Mother Earth — in Bolivia

Ole Thonke, Ambassador and Camilla Lodberg Holck Madsen, Royal Danish Embassy in La Paz, Bolivia

n 2012 the Bolivian Government passed a new law

that gave special rights to Mother Earth. The law is

considered the first of its kind, and gives all nature

equal rights to humans. With the law, the Bolivian

Government and society hoped to embrace the tradi-

tional indigenous respect for Mother Earth, also known

in Bolivia as Pachamama, and the law was considered

vital to prevent ongoing climate changes, which have

already caused drastic consequences in the country. One

of the most severe is the melting of glaciers in the high

Andes, which has caused both droughts and floods in

Bolivia in recent years.

The passing of the law marks a new direction in Bolivian

politics towards the environment, which began when Evo

Morales won the election in 2005 and entered the presi-

dency. As the first Bolivian president from the indigenous

population, Morales’ politics have focused especially on

improving the rights and living conditions of the indig-

enous groups in Bolivia with politics that respect their

lifestyle, culture and traditions, among them respect for

nature. However, Morales and the Bolivian Government

face a major dilemma between the desire to expand extrac-

tive industries in order to fund social programmes and

provide employment, and the desire to protect the coun-

try’s environment and nature from pollution caused by

these industries. Therefore, it is a challenge for vision and

practice to go hand in hand in Bolivia.

For the people living in Bolivia’s forests, the choice

between clearing the forest to make way for their agricul-

ture or making use of the resources of the existing forest

has not been difficult to make. The former option has

traditionally been by far the most profitable one — and

the fastest way to earn a living. Therefore, deforestation

in Bolivia has been increasing since the 1990s and is one

of the country’s biggest threats to the environment, to the

climate and to the local people, who experience the direct

consequences of the deforestation.

Image: Carlos Pinto/FAN

One of the sad consequences of deforestation in Amazonas — the increasing

spreading of forest fires

Image: Edmond Sanchez/FAN

Clear evidence of deforestation in Bolivia

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