Indigenous Peoples and Conservation Organizations

The Sirionó in Bolivia 83
fied by the 36 traditional landmarks cited in the
executive order.
When the new legislation began its passage
through the legislature, CIDDEBENI realized the
opportunity and danger it posed. If the community
could develop a plan to manage its forest
resources, it would have the leverage to push forward
and consolidate what the presidential decree
had promised. If the community did not act, the
new laws could be turned against the community
and all that had been gained might be lost.
To its credit, CIDDEBENI realized that for any
victory to be lasting, the community would have
to take charge. But it also knew that the community
did not have the skills or the awareness yet
to meet the challenge it faced. With preliminary
financing from the International Work Group for
Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), a donor based in
Denmark that supports training in self-governance,
CIDDEBENI helped the community survey
its needs, set priorities, and identify what had
to be done to meet them. The Sirionó identified
several areas for attention (CIDDEBENI 1996).
The two at the top of the list—territory and
health—were to be expected, given the history of
the past half-century. In descending order the
remaining priorities were education, organization,
cattle husbandry, overuse of plants, lack of
arable land, overexploitation of wildlife, facilitation
of honey production, commercialization of
local products, and the need for outside work.
Participants concerned with each priority were
then asked to analyze its problems in detail.
Those concerned with wildlife, for instance,
reported that game was growing scarce in the
traditional hunting grounds and hunters must
travel farther from the community to find it.
Possible reasons for this were outside poaching
because the territorial guards were ineffective,
and the absence of internal controls over the harvest.
Analysis of plant overexploitation led to
similar findings, and a list of threatened wood
plants was drawn up. Participants noted that
medicinal plants were also being lost, along with
the knowledge of how to use them. Gradually
the dialogues in these small focus groups moved
to communitywide planning sessions at which
conflicts and connections that were hidden
became apparent. Thus awareness grew that
people cutting dead trees for firewood were
competing for a common resource with those
hunting honey, since some native bees require
hollow logs for their hives. This led people to
think about the lack of forest resource management
and administration not only for fallen but
for standing trees.
When the diagnostic survey was complete,
IWGIA funded community development of a
resource management plan and its partial implementation.
Technical assistance to help the
Sirionó handle their 200 cattle is being funded by
the Japanese donor JBN. But the core of the
community effort is an integrated forest management
plan with two primary components—for
firewood cutting and honey production—and
research to add a third component for wildlife.
CIDDEBENI, with IWGIA support, is teaching
the Sirionó how to inventory their woodlands and
develop rational schemes for firewood and honey
production that can be presented to the Bolivian
Superintendent of Forests as required by law.
The driving force behind the forestry management
plan has been the exploding firewood market.
Outsiders constantly pressure the Sirionó to
sell timber, especially what remains of the hardwoods,
but many other trees are useful as fuel.
Fortunately, since 1991 the community organization
has been strong enough to legally repossess
wood taken by pirate loggers. But the situation
is complicated by the fact that individual Sirionó
and the community organization have been making
agreements with outsiders for selective tree
cutting. Since 1992 the extraction of firewood
from the territory has skyrocketed, with thousands
of cubic meters from agricultural clearing
being sold to the ceramics industry in Trinidad
alone. The integrated planning process is an
attempt to bring order to a process that has been
out of control.
Following is an example of how seriously the
Sirionó are taking this opportunity. In January
1998, prior to approval of the management project,
the Sirionó Council signed a contract with an outsider
to cut wood to repay old community debts.
The contractor agreed to pay Sirionó men to cut
the wood with the community chainsaws, but only
if the timber was priced cheaply. The contractor
waited five months to call in his claim only to be
greeted by an unwelcome surprise. Financing for
the management project had finally been approved