Roboré Bolivia
In July 2024, Indigenous communities belonging to the Tucabaca Municipal Wildlife Reserve and Natural Heritage Conservation Unit filed a class-action lawsuit against the mining company Walfremar SRL. This action stemmed from the fact that the Mining Administrative Jurisdictional Authority (AJAM), under the Ministry of Mining and Metallurgy, had authorized mining activity in the municipality of Roboré, Chiquitos province, Santa Cruz department. The company intended to conduct prospecting and exploration activities in 84 grid squares within the Reserve, impacting the communities of Aguas Calientes, Yororobá, and Quitunuquiña. Aguas Calientes is located in the buffer zone of the protected area, while the other two are situated near its boundary.
The plaintiffs alleged that the prospecting and exploration license granted to Walfremar SRL in 2023 violated the rights of Indigenous peoples as enshrined in the Bolivian Constitution, ILO Convention 169, and the American Convention on Human Rights. Furthermore, they demanded compliance with current environmental regulations in the municipality and respect for the decisions of Indigenous communities that had previously rejected mining operations, as in the case of the transnational corporation Montecarlo SA. They also argued that open-pit mining would cause irreparable environmental damage, asserting that climate change is a dimension that must be considered in mining permits, given the disruptions to natural cycles, droughts, and other climatic phenomena. This action emphasized the impacts on human rights, among which the following stand out: (i) the rights of nature, (ii) the right to enjoy a healthy and ecologically balanced environment, (iii) the right to food, (iv) the right to water, (v) the right to health, (vi) the right to land and territory, and (vii) the right to a dignified life.
On August 5, 2024, a resolution was issued rejecting the application for a prospecting and exploration license to the company Walfremar SRL regarding the Aguas Calientes area.
This action expressly highlighted the importance of considering the climate dimension in classic cases of mining and indigenous peoples, arguing the following in its legal basis:
“The legal assessment derived from the Political Constitution of the State and the analysis of the dramatic situation of the climate crisis and the negative impact of mining activities on communal territories, allows the indigenous authorities (Caciques) of the Chiquitano indigenous communities, through this public statement, to protect each of the communities from the socio-environmental impacts of mining.
In the face of the climate crisis affecting the planet, whose effects are hitting the most vulnerable communities hardest, it is necessary for the State to guarantee and respect the exercise of collective rights over the environment and common goods of indigenous peoples, especially since the State's own Political Constitution defines the mechanism for exercising community and participatory democracy as a principle of communal government.
He also emphasized the violation of the rights of nature, the right to a healthy environment, the right to food, and the rights of indigenous peoples conferred in ILO Convention 169.
- Indigenous communities
- Walfremar Mining SRL.
- The Mining Administrative Jurisdictional Authority (AJAM).
- Ministry of Mining and Metallurgy.
This protected area, covering 262,305 hectares, is located in Roboré and forms part of the Tucabaca Valley, a territory of 600,000 hectares. The residents of Santiago de Chiquitos and Roboré have been staunch defenders of it since its inception. Today, mining, forest fires, and illegal settlements are some of the threats it faces. In 2006, it was recognized as a departmental protected area, and in 2015, through Law No. 98, it was categorized as a Natural Heritage Conservation Unit (UCPN) and a Departmental Wildlife Refuge (RVSD).
Bolivia's 2025 General State Budget allocates only 0.04% of public investment to environmental conservation, a negligible amount compared to the investment in the hydrocarbons, mining, and agricultural sectors, which accounts for approximately 20% of the budget. In 2024, Bolivia suffered its worst ecological disaster, a result of forest fires.
Since the 1980s, Tucabaca has been identified as a site of high importance for biodiversity conservation. The towns and communities of the region, with the support of non-governmental organizations and science, maintained a struggle to promote the creation of the first municipal protected area in Bolivia, known as the Tucabaca Valley Municipal Wildlife Reserve, in the municipality of Roboré, in August 2000, and was later reinforced by a departmental law - Municipal Protected Area Law 252/23 - which seeks to ensure the maintenance of vital ecological functions.
The Tucabaca Valley is home to the most biodiverse tropical dry forest in all of South America. This is very important to highlight because 97% of the world's tropical dry forests are endangered.
In addition to this, there is the rich Chiquitano culture and the rock paintings found both inside and outside the protected area. These latter paintings are currently being studied to understand the impact of the fires of recent years, among other threats.
International agreements/treaties
- Escazú Agreement
- International Labour Organization Convention 169.
- American Convention on Human Rights.
National laws
- Municipal Law of Protected Area 252/23
- Political Constitution of the State of Bolivia.
- Law No. 535, on Mining and Metallurgy.
Beginning
- Principle of prevention
- Intergenerational Principle
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