Sugarcane farming transforming indigenous lands in Bolivian Amazon
Online News Editor
March 29, 2022
3 minutes read
By Karen Gil and Rafael Acuña
Buena Vista, Bolivia, Mar 29 (EFE).- Sugarcane fields stretch over 124 hectares (306 acres) of land once covered by lush rainforest and home to wild animals on the outskirts of Buena Vista, one of the 20 communities that make up the Tacana Indigenous Territory in the western part of the Bolivian Amazon.
Without the cool shade that trees had previously provided, walking in that expanse equivalent in size to 173 soccer fields means tolerating temperatures of up to 35 C (95 F) in the spring.
Local inhabitants say the temperature has changed since 2016, when trees began to be cleared to plant sugarcane and supply raw material for the Empresa Azucarera San Buenaventura (EASBA), a state-owned mill that is based in the town of San Buenaventura, La Paz Department, and borders a section of the Tacana 1 Communal Land of Origin.
“Before the EASBA arrived, no one cleared (land) with machines,” Buena Vista’s mayor and one of the local sugarcane farmers, Julio Duval, said.
More:
https://www.laprensalatina.com/sugarcane-farming-transforming-indigenous-lands-in-bolivian-amazon/
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JUNE 24, 2021
The Sugarcane Siege on Tacana Indigenous Territory
Authors:
Karen Gil
AMAZON RJF GRANTEE
Rafael Acuña
AMAZON RJF GRANTEE
This project will investigate the acceleration of deforestation in the Tacana Indigenous territory of the Amazon region of La Paz as a result of sugarcane production by the Empresa Azucarera San Buenaventura (EASBA), located in the municipality of San Buenaventura, Bolivia, and examine the deforestation's impact on Tacana Indigenous communities.
Since there are plans to expand the agricultural frontier to include 17,000 hectares of sugarcane plantations, deforestation has devastated part of the rainforest in the municipalities of San Buenaventura and Ixiamas in La Paz, and is extending to Rurrenabaque and Reyes in the department of Beni.
With the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, deforestation worsened in the Tacana communities of San Buenaventura and Ixiamas. According to Alex Villca, from the National Coordinator for the Defense of Peasant Originary Indigenous Territories and Protected Areas of Bolivia (CONTIOCAP), several trucks left La Paz for Beni loaded with timber during the rigid quarantine period (March to June 2020) without any oversight.
Deforestation—both legal and illegal—does not benefit Indigenous communities, as they receive little income from the sale of timber. Therefore, it is important to investigate how trees are cut down and the consequences that has for the Tacana communities in terms of health, economy, food, and social structure.
More:
https://rainforestjournalismfund.org/projects/sugarcane-siege-tacana-indigenous-territory