Introduction to Bolivia

Bolivia is a landlocked country in central Southern America. Bolivia has a population of 12.2 million people as of 2022,1 with 69.4% of the population living in urban areas.2 Bolivia is one of the most impoverished countries in Latin America, with a poverty rate of 36.3% and an extreme poverty rate of 11.1%.3 The country is also home to the largest population of indigenous people in Latin America, with about two-thirds of the population being Indigenous.4 Poverty is unfortunately prevalent amongst Bolivia’s indigenous groups.5 Bolivia is a geographically varied country, with three distinct climatological regions each sitting at disparate levels of elevation ranging from 21,000 feet to just 300: dry highlands in the Andean area, semi-tropical valleys, and tropical lowlands.6 The highlands are home to mostly Quechua and Aymara peoples whose livelihoods depend on agriculture and cattle grazing, while the semitropical valleys produce much of the country’s food exports, and mountains near the highlands house Bolivia’s vast mineral reserves.7 A former Spanish colony, Bolivia was exploited for its supply of silver and other precious metals. Today, the country’s major exports still include precious metals as well as natural gas and soybeans,8 and the most prominent industries are mining and petroleum.9 These neocolonial extractive activities exacerbate the impact of the climate crisis on Bolivia.7

Mapping Major Climate Events and Climate-Induced Displacement

Bolivia is responsible for only 0.28% of global greenhouse gas emissions while the country is ranked #129 in the Climate Vulnerability Index.10 434,000 Bolivians have been internally displaced between 2008 and 2022 due to climate disasters, with flooding being the top weather event that causes displacement.11 7,511 people were impacted by flooding in Bolivia in 2020.12 Bolivia has also experienced major drought and forest fires.13 Out of all the countries touched by the Amazon rainforest, Bolivia has been most impacted by land burning and forest fires,14 the result of forest being burned in order to be made into farmland.15  Bolivia declared a state of emergency in 2016 due to drought, the worst the country had seen in 25 years. The drought affected 125,000 families and 360,000 cattle.16  In 2022, Bolivia suffered forest fires in the lowlands which threatened already vulnerable nature reserves.17 Temperature increases in the Andes have caused water shortages, resulting in farmers exiting the agricultural industry and migrating to find work.18 Indeed, the urban population continues to trend upwards as people leave rural areas that have been impacted by desertification, a process that now affects over 40% of Bolivian land. The groups leaving rural areas are mostly men and young people. Women and the elderly are left behind to take on increased agricultural workloads.15 Numerous indigenous groups have been displaced from their traditional homelands due to desertification, such as the Uru Chirpaya who have had to leave the area around the drying River Lauca and the Uru-Murato who have had to leave the area around the drying Lake Poopó.19

Mapping the Costs of the Climate Crisis

Bolivia’s GDP per capita is $3,345.20 USD and overall GDP is $40.41 billion as of 2021.20 Both resource over-extraction and climate change could do serious damage to the Bolivian economy. Since Bolivia has come to rely on mining and petroleum as major drivers of the economy, dwindling amounts of these resources could sink the nation into even deeper poverty.  The most recent statistics on how climate change is impacting Bolivia’s economy come from 2007/8, when Bolivia became one of the top ten countries most impacted by disasters. During this time, disasters cost Bolivia $547 million USD.21 In 2014, flooding attributed to Brazilian damming of the Madeira river caused $111 million worth of damage in Bolivia. It is projected that the dams will cause an increase in illness, loss of important animal and plant life, and more flooding in the future.22 Bolivia’s particular climate vulnerabilities include food and water insecurity, more frequent adverse weather events, and an increase in mosquito borne disease.23 Bolivia is also projected to suffer biodiversity loss in the wetlands and to develop more uneven and chaotic seasonal changes.24

Mapping Resilience and Mitigation Pathways

Bolivia produces just 0.28% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Despite the country’s extremely low emissions, Bolivia has still committed to an ambitious Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) regarding climate change mitigation. The 2022 NDC does not offer an emissions reduction goal, but Bolivia’s Biennial Transparency Report is set to include this information.25 Bolivia’s current NDC relies upon both sovereign endeavors and international collaboration, particularly in the form of financial contributions from wealthier nations, in order to achieve its climate goals. Bolivia proposes a comprehensive framework that highlights the importance of living within the Earth’s systems rather than against them and goes as far as to recommend the entire world adopt this point of view. The framework puts forth a mitigation and adaptation approach through a loss and damage lens. The NDC opposes the hegemony of capitalism and calls upon wealthy countries to pay their climate debts, while calling for access to water and other “universal common goods” to be enshrined as human rights.10 Bolivia demonstrates its commitment to protecting these goods in its efforts to address water insecurity through pollution treatment, invest in renewable energies via increased attention to technology and innovation, manage its forests and agriculture sustainably, and bolster the durability of its food systems.26

Necessary Changes

The international community can learn a lot from Bolivia’s NDCs as well as from Evo Morales’s presidency regarding the best practices for achieving greater economic equity, better living conditions for indigenous groups, and revitalizing our collective relationship to nature and the Earth. Bolivia should also be supported in a just transition away from its reliance on extractive industries like mining to fuel its economy. Bolivia adopted the “Law of Mother Nature” in 2012 which stipulates rights for nature, indigenous groups, and women, as well as mandates protection for the people be provided by the state.27 This legal framework represents a major ideological shift away from viewing the planet and its resources as existing solely for profit. Such a shift is necessary for effectively and equitably dealing with the impacts of climate change. Socialist former president Evo Morales -the first indigenous president of Bolivia- introduced many policies that helped lift Bolivians out of poverty, such as nationalizing the oil and gas industries and redistributing over 134 million acres of land to indigenous families, and investing in education and infrastructure. Morales sought asylum in Mexico after the Bolivian military ousted him in 2019.28 Morales has alleged that his ousting was a “lithium coup,” the result of the U.S. not wanting Bolivia to partner with other countries on extracting its vast lithium supply.29  Bolivia has more lithium than any other country in the world, and lithium prices have skyrocketed since 2020. While lithium mining could bring economic benefits, it also brings environmental degradation that hurts the livelihoods and health of the indigenous people who live near lithium reserves.30 Thus, there is a pressing need for the Bolivian government to shift its focus from the extractive and ecologically destructive sectors like mining, and instead redirect its efforts towards cultivating a sustainable, regenerative and inclusive economy.