Indigenous Peoples and Conservation Organizations

86 The Sirionó in Bolivia
these topics in workshop after workshop. Both
CIDDEBENI and CIDOB have emphasized the
importance of holding training sessions in the
community and opening them to everyone who is
interested. In the past, individuals have left
Ibiato for specialized training from NGOs, but
what they have learned has been closely held.
Perhaps this mirrors the Sirionó concept of ownership,
with knowledge belonging to the person
who finds and uses it. Opening information
flows is essential if the community is to build the
consensus that is needed to collectively manage
communal resources.
Second, the training must be conducted as a dialogue
rather than a monologue. In discussing the
community’s options and how environmental
issues affect potential gains and losses, it is
imperative to avoid jargon. CIDOB’s experience
in several Bolivian communities is that indigenous
people will rarely ask for clarification of
terms that they do not understand if they sense
the purpose of the encounter is not a two-way
exchange of information. Like most nonspecialists,
in fact, they simply stop listening. Even
though both sides in Ibiato may speak Spanish,
the technician must listen carefully if he or she
hopes to speak clearly and be understood in turn.
To further this process, it makes sense to use
bilingual training materials. Local participants
may all read and write Spanish, but they are more
likely to take ownership of the material when it is
also expressed in Sirionó. They feel it helps keep
their language alive and provides a quick litmus
test of whether or not the materials are relevant.
Third, it is important to communicate with local
leaders because they are often the gatekeepers of
their communities. Of course outsiders are not
always in the best position to judge who the leaders
are. This is why starting activities in new
areas as small research projects makes good
sense. It allows both partners to learn more about
one another, find out what the real issues are, and
build the trust needed to devise solutions.
Finally, issues and concepts should be framed in
ways that touch a local chord. Abstractions must
be grounded, wherever possible, in local realities
and values. Take the question of biodiversity.
The Sirionó understand that their resource base is
threatened. People know they are lucky to still
have game, and are concerned that harvests seem
to be shrinking since the first measurements several
years ago. They have heard others complain
about how poor the hunting is in neighboring villages,
and have seen with their own eyes the
changes to the landscape around them. They
realize that they inhabit a complex system of
resources and are looking for synergies that multiply
returns rather than more intensive exploitation
that cashes out a resource. They were the
ones who broadened a reforestation project
beyond hardwoods for export, to hardy native
species that would provide a food source for
game as well as firewood for local markets. The
trade-off being worked out between bee and firewood
producers is also based on multiple use of
resources. Indigenous peoples have usually
relied on a variety of sources for subsistence, and
they seek to add income-generating activities to
the mix. It is a lifestyle that mirrors and depends
on the biodiversity around them.
Recently a workshop held in Ibiato to design the
wildlife census introduced a larger notion of biodiversity
conservation by talking about the
immense Amazonian Corridor of which the
Sirionó are a tiny and marginal part. Some of the
fish that breed in local waters during the rainy
season work their way much farther downstream.
And the jabiru stork that arrives to feed on them
is a mythic bird for the Xavante Indians in Brazil
hundreds of miles to the north. Workshop participants
expressed pride in having the opportunity to
play an important role in keeping this system
functioning, especially since changes to the land
around Ibiato may make a Sirionó TCO a vital
island for migrating species. Still, they wondered
what direct benefits that role might confer.
One answer comes from an idea being tried elsewhere
by other indigenous groups. Word has filtered
into Ibiato about ecotourism, and the
Sirionó quiz anyone who seems to know more
about it. They like the idea that the land could
be left much as it is and still provide the community
with the basic elements of a good life.
And there are reasons for finding the idea plausible.
The international airport at Trinidad is
accessible, the pre-Columbian mounds are archeological
sites available for exploration, wildlife
can be viewed at water holes, and the people of
Ibiato generally like visitors and have the language
skills to communicate in Spanish. There