Paper short abstract:

The paper examines how Chiquitano people in Eastern Bolivia and state actors construct Monte Verde as indigenous territory. It points to remarkable continuities in the way that state actors and some Chiquitano leaders conceptualise the environment, land and resources in ‘post neo-liberal’ Bolivia.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines how Chiquitano people in the Eastern Bolivian Santa Cruz department and state actors are constructing the environment and space of the Monte Verde territory. From the mid-1990s, three Chiquitano Organisations took advantage of the Bolivian government's neoliberal multicultural legislation in order to claim Monte Verde as first-peoples communal land (TCO). As Chiquitano began formulating their legal claim and settlement plans, and communities moved into Monte Verde, state administrative actors and NGOs pressured for the 'sustainable' exploitation of indigenous territories and 'territorial management'. Seemingly contradicting the constitutional text which defined TCOs as spaces where indigenous people 'maintain and develop their own forms of economic, social and cultural organisation', indigenous movements' could only gain territorial ownership if they administered the space and resources present as the state required.

In response, the Chiquitano organisation were involved in dividing the territory into 'zones of use' already before they received the legal title for their territory in 2007, representing a shift from subsistence and the emphasis on 'relational spaces', to a logic of production-oriented projects and spaces perceived as 'zones of utility' (cf. García Hierro and Surrallés, 2005: 10-11). This paper argues that an analysis of developments in Bolivian indigenous territories underway in so-called 'post neo-liberal' Bolivia point to a remarkable continuity, rather than a break, when it comes to the conceptualisation of resources, land and the environment from the side of local and national state actors, as well as some Chiquitano leaders and community members.