Empowered lives. Resilient nations. CONSEJO INDÍGENA DEL PUEBLO TACANA (CIPTA) Plurinational State of Bolivia Equator Initiative Case Studies Local sustainable development solutions for people, nature, and resilient communities UNDP EQUATOR INITIATIVE CASE STUDY SERIES Local and indigenous communities across the world are 126 countries, the winners were recognized for their advancing innovative sustainable development solutions achievements at a prize ceremony held in conjunction that work for people and for nature. Few publications with the United Nations Convention on Climate Change or case studies tell the full story of how such initiatives (COP21) in Paris. Special emphasis was placed on the evolve, the breadth of their impacts, or how they change protection, restoration, and sustainable management over time. Fewer still have undertaken to tell these stories of forests; securing and protecting rights to communal with community practitioners themselves guiding the lands, territories, and natural resources; community- narrative. The Equator Initiative aims to fill that gap. based adaptation to climate change; and activism for The Equator Initiative, supported by generous funding environmental justice. The following case study is one in from the Government of Norway, awarded the Equator a growing series that describes vetted and peer-reviewed Prize 2015 to 21 outstanding local community and best practices intended to inspire the policy dialogue indigenous peoples initiatives to reduce poverty, protect needed to take local success to scale, to improve the global nature, and strengthen resilience in the face of climate knowledge base on local environment and development change. Selected from 1,461 nominations from across solutions, and to serve as models for replication. PROJECT SUMMARY KEY FACTS In the heart of one of Bolivia’s most biodiverse regions, Equator Prize Winner Consejo Indígena del Pueblo Tacana (Indigenous 2015 Council of the Tacana People, or CIPTA) has secured a ’Native Community Lands’ collective land title (TCO, Founded by its abbreviation in Spanish) to 389,303 hectares of forest and savanna. After bringing the successful 1996 land claim before the Bolivian government, CIPTA Location agreed on land use and natural resource management practices among the 20 communities that live Abel Iturralde Province, La Paz Department, in the in the territory. Their land use strategy prioritizes northeastern area of the Plurinational State of Bolivia sustainable livelihoods, biodiversity conservation and forest protection. Their success is reflected in Beneficiaries the Tacana territory’s deforestation rate which is 2,606 members of the 20 communities making up four times lower than in surrounding areas used for Consejo Indígena del Pueblo Tacana agriculture and other productive activities. CIPTA also created 24 community-based associations to Areas of focus oversee agroforestry, ecotourism, cocoa production Protection, restoration and sustainable management of and sustainable caiman (Caiman yacare) hunting. forests; protecting and securing rights to communal lands, More than 50 percent of Tacana households have territories and natural resources benefited from these associations. Tacana individuals have gone from poorly-paid employees to members Sustainable Development Goals Addressed of associations that offer sustainable sources of income. An independent women’s organization has also been established to coordinate work across the 20 communities. It aims to strengthen women’s participation in the community, such as championing cultural recovery and improving women’s quality of life. The Tacana territory forms a corridor that links up to the Madidi protected area, providing vital protection for its more than 50 endangered plant and animal species, including the jaguar (Panthera onca) and the white- lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari). 64° 60° na BOLIVIA Abu 10° 10° BOLIVIA Guajará Mirim PANDO M Riberalta a Cobija m s o io o a r tár i t é au D a e C Asunción Y d re d a M Guap or Lago I é Puerto Rogaguado tén BRASIL Heath ez i i n id e ad Lago M B Huaitunas Magdalena PERU Santa Lago Ana Lago de Rogagua San Luis G ma u cu a 14 Ya P p 14 ° BENIé a o ° r S r r Reyes o a a é n g e m u r a LA PAZ e M á San p M S a A Trinidad r Apolo Borja a t í n n M C i g o Loreto u r e Puerto d a l i o Ascención Lago Acosta l h l Caranavi Ic e u nd G Titicaca r e Q fin ra a u d o n e l d i d i q e h Concepción u c ( San Ignacio La Paz i I Gu R b ap e a Las y COCHABAMBA e P y Viacha C ir ) Petas Guaqui a o Santa Rosa a r y l d del Sara . SANTA CRUZ Laguna Cochabamba Montero O Concepción De saguadero r San José Laguna C i de Chiquitos e Uberaba o Oruro n Santa Cruz 18 C 18 EQUATOR PRIZE 2015 WINNER FILM ° Putre ° o t Laguna r Aiquile a ORUROA r Roboré Mandioré d l d l La t uc i i i a p Lago l Puerto l l l Poopó Bañados del C a e Sucre Santa Ana Suárez l n r Izozog o a a c o e Tarabuco h C Salar de C r P n i Coipasa Potosí l a e c o r H n m y G a u t a g y r a Salar de o Camiri ar Uyuni a P O Uyuni l PARAGUAY c CHUQUIS ACA I POTOSÍ c Villa Montes National capital i P il d co Departmental capital Tarija m L V a e i llaz y Town, village ón T ARIJA o n Major airport 22 Yucuiba 22 ° t International boundary ° La Quiaca a E Departmental boundary l Pan American Highway Main road Railroad ARGENTINA Antofagasta 0 100 200 300 km The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations. 0 100 200 mi 68° 64° 60° Map No. 3875 Rev. 3 UNITED NATIONS Department of Peacekeeping Operations August 2004 Cartographic Section The designations employed and the presentation of material on this map do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations or UNDP concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT Predating the Inca Empire, the Tacana people have In 1997, CIPTA applied for a ’Native Community Lands’ title inhabited lands surrounding the Beni, Madre de Dios, (‘Tierra Comunitaria de Origen’ in Spanish, or TCO) for land Madidi and Tuichi rivers—an area that forms part of Peru, situated on the southeastern edge of the Madidi protected Brazil and, chiefly, Bolivia. Today, the Tacana are scattered area, Tacana I, to Bolivia’s National Agrarian Reform Institute across the eastern flank of the central Tropical Andes in (INRA) on behalf of the 20 Tacana communities. The Bolivia, in the Pando and Beni Departments. Most of the application was successful, and 389,303 hectares of land population is concentrated in Abel Iturralde Province are now regulated and titled. 39,430 hectares of this area within La Paz Department, where lands overlap with rich, overlap with Madidi. CIPTA submitted a second application biodiverse areas like the Madidi Integrated Management in 2001 for the designation of TCO for Tacana II, an area at Natural Area (ANMI) and Madidi National Park. the northern end of Madidi, which is currently undergoing regulation. At present, this application is being managed by This region is significant in terms of biodiversity, as it contains the Central de Comunidades Indígenas Tacana II Río Madre 11 different forest and savanna ecosystems that are not de Díos (Tacana II Rio Madre de Dios Indigenous Community represented in protected land areas. Madidi National Park Center). Ownership of TCO Tacana I is currently shared and Integrated Management Natural Area form the core of between 19 different communities. These 19 communities, this landscape. They contain an estimated 12,000 species and one community located outside the TCO boundary, are of vascular plant, 1,100 species of bird (11percent of all bird represented by CIPTA. CIPTA beneficiaries are the members species found on Earth) and approximately 300 species of of the 20 communities comprising: a population of 2,606 mammal. This is the home of a number of the characteristic individuals, according to the 2012 census, of whom 1,370 fauna species of the Bolivian Amazon: the jaguar (Panthera (53percent) are men and 1,236 (47percent) are women. onca); the white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari); the giant otter (Pteronura brasiliensis); the pacarana (Dinomys branickii); Despite severe deforestation pressure on this area, the the white-fronted capuchin (Cebus albifrons); the Madidi titi Tacana people have preserved traditional land and natural monkey (Callicebus aureipalatii); the marsh deer (Blastocerus resource management practices that are both compatible dichotomus); and the black caiman (Melanosuchus niger). with biodiversity conservation objectives and are now regarded as general Tacana policies. These policies align The Tacana’s stewardship of their territory protects with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted corridors linking to the Madidi protected area. These by the national government as key elements of its agenda. corridors are vital for sustaining wildlife populations, such There is consequently a substantial degree of overlap with as the jaguar (Panthera onca) and the white-lipped peccary protected areas in terms of watershed management, the (Tayassu pecari), which require large amounts of space and maintenance of fauna populations, the conservation of are endangered on the continent. These species are also areas for gathering and extracting forest resources and the integral to the patterns of subsistence hunting practiced protection and promotion of cultural heritage.