Indigenous community intelligence for the climate crisis in Bolivia's Amazon biome

Innovation methods

Data sources

SDG(s)

Sustainable Development Goal(s)

1No poverty

13Climate action

15Life on land

Disclaimer:

Please be aware that the content herein has not been peer reviewed. It consists of personal reflections, insights, and learnings of the contributor(s). It may not be exhaustive, nor does it aim to be authoritative knowledge.

Title

Please provide a name for your action learning plan.

Indigenous community intelligence for the climate crisis in Bolivia's Amazon biome

Challenge statement

Challenge type: If you are working on multiple challenges, please indicate if this is your "big bet" or "exploratory" challenge. Please note: we ask you to only submit a maximum of 3 challenges - 1x Big Bet, 2x Exploratory. Each challenge must be submitted individually.

BIG BET

Challenge statement: What is your challenge? (Please answer in specific terms: "Our challenge is that...”.)

Our challenge is that the climate crisis is not perceived as urgent yet by indigenous communties in Bolivia's Amazon, because of their latent economic growth and health needs.

Background: What is the history of your challenge? What is causing or driving it? Who is involved? How does the current situation look like? What undesired effects does it produce?

Due to severe droughts, indigenous peoples of the northern Amazon of Bolivia are suffering a decline in their main livelihoods products. As a result, they sell forest land for logging with high negative impacts on deforestation, land use change, and ecosystem degradation. There is a national legal framework to support indigenous peoples in their economic and social needs through indigenous life plans, but these plans have not been developped yet. The national government began their implementation with two main challenges: a) integrate indigenous climate change considerations into these plans and b) include this plans in the national planning system in order to receive funds for implementing. Developing indigenous life plans with climate action sharing indigenous and scientific knowledge will be an efficient tool to support indigenous peoples in their development so they could have a sustainable forest management.

Quantitative evidence: What (official) data sources do you have on this challenge that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge? You can add text, a link, or a picture.

Deforestation in Bolivia exceeds 200.000 hectares per year. Bolivia is one of the countries with the highest degradation in Latin America.

Qualitative evidence: What weak signals have you recently spotted that characterizes its urgency? Please provide qualitative information that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge. You can add text, a link, or a picture.

According Vicent Vos, a researcher we interviewed, indigenous people are clear about what is really happening. "They understand that the forest is drying up and it is not as productive as it was before. They are aware that animals are disappearing, but they just do not understand why is it happening. The relationship between deforestation and water scarcity is not well understood by indigenous communities" Water scarcity has been caused health issues and lower productiviy of indigenous main livelihoods. As a result indigenous families are migrating to the city.

Challenge classification

Partners

Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.

Please state the name of the Parter:

The Plurinational Authority of Mother Earth (APMT)

What sector does our partner belong to?

Government (&related)

Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.

The APMT needs to develop an adequate methodology to build indigenous life plans. It is expected that the methodology could be scaled up to the remaining 35 indigenous peoples

Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?

Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.

Please state the name of the Parter:

Indigenous Center of the Amazon Region in Bolivia (CIRABO)

What sector does our partner belong to?

Civil Society

Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.

CIRABO is the representation of indigenous peoples and it is the main stakeholder to manage indigenous communities. Initially we will test with CIRABO the value proposition and the methology for building indigenous life plans.

Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?

Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.

Please state the name of the Parter:

Municipalities of Santa Rosa, Reyes and Riberalta

What sector does our partner belong to?

Government (&related)

Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.

To ensure financing for indigenous life plans it is neccesary to integrate them into the Municipal Development Plans. We will work with municipalities to identify the requirements for that.

Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?

Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.

Please state the name of the Parter:

Autonomous University of Beni

What sector does our partner belong to?

Academia

Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.

University of Beni will share their studies about the Amazon of Bolivia.

Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?

Yes

Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.

Please state the name of the Parter:

NGOs

What sector does our partner belong to?

Civil Society

Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.

NGOs will implement some of the activities of the learning journey

Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?

Learning questions

Learning question: What is your learning question for this challenge? What do you need to know or understand to work on your challenge statement?

Are the perceptions of development of indigenous peoples and the government aligned? Are the indigenous development plans an adequate mechanism to achieve a sustainable management of the forest? What are the conditions for sustainability and scaling up of the collective intelligence methodology for building indigenous plans?

To what stage(s) in the learning cycle does your learning question relate?

Test

Usage of methods: Relating to your choice above, how will you use your methods & tools for this learning question? What value do these add in answering your learning question?

We are looking indigenous communities to undertand and own the innovation methods, that is why we are calling it community intelligence

Existing data gaps: Relating to your choice above, what existing gaps in data or information do these new sources of data addressing? What value do these add in answering your learning question?

Ancestral knowledge addresses the missing collective intelligence from the past and Collective imagination enables collective intelligence for the future. For the present information, a participatory and collective approach helps to respect their current governance dynamics, surveys enables the opportunity for every opinion to be captured and automated transcription data helps to capture information for semantic analysis

Closing

Early leads to grow: Think about the possible grow phase for this challenge - who might benefit from your work on this challenge or who might be the champions in your country that you should inform or collaborate with early on to help you grow this challenge?

We are running the experiment in a few indigenous communities, we expect to have a validated methodology for the life plans with climate action that could be used for the rest of the indigenous communities in Bolivia, and also leverage the methdology for other indigenous communities in the Amazon biome.

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Innovation methods

Data sources

SDG(s)

Sustainable Development Goal(s)

1No poverty

13Climate action

15Life on land

Comments

Action plan