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Begin New Search Topic Natural Resources Political Geography Bolivia

1. The Impact of the 21st Century Commodity Supercycle on Natural-Resource Dependent Economies: The Case of Bolivia and Peru

Author:
Daniel Agramont-Lechín
Publication Date:
01-2024
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Postgraduate Program on Sustainable Development and Social Inequalities in the Andean Region (trAndeS)
Abstract:
In the early 21st century, Bolivia and Peru experienced remarkable economic growth, coupled with notable reductions in poverty and inequality. However, the subsequent economic slowdown triggered by declining international commodity prices raised concerns about the sustainability of their progress. Historically, both nations have been vulnerable to fluctuations in global commodity prices, often resulting in social unrest and political instability. This study examines whether the significant influx of resources to Bolivia and Peru from 2003 to 2013, attributed to the commodity boom, fostered structural transformation or, on the contrary, reinforced their dependence on the global economy. Analyzing macroeconomic and productivity data, the research indicates a strong correlation between their economic performance and the commodity supercycle trend. A primary finding suggests that rather than fostering a more self-reliant economic integration, the 21st-century economic boom exacerbated the reliance of both nations on natural resource extraction. However, a more nuanced examination reveals divergent medium-term impacts driven by each nation’s development model. Peru, through diversification of international revenue streams and prudent macroeconomic policies, managed to mitigate the effects of declining commodity prices. In contrast, Bolivia’s economy bore the brunt of diminishing income, not only due to the end of the commodity boom but also due to insufficient investments in productive sectors.
Topic:
Natural Resources, Economy, Neoliberalism, Commodities, Extractivism, Economic Dependence, and Post-Neoliberalism
Political Geography:
South America, Peru, and Bolivia

2. Tropical rainforests and global warming

Author:
Mike Speirs
Publication Date:
11-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:
Disappearing tropical forests are high on the global climate change and biodiversity agendas. A survey of progress towards setting up a ‘results-based payments’ (rewards) scheme known as REDD+ explores international funding for forests, with evidence from Bolivia, Ghana and Indonesia. The need to tackle the drivers of deforestation is emphasised, including land use changes for crop cultivation and livestock. The roles of indigenous people and local communities in ensuring equitable and effective natural resource management and forest conservation are underlined in the survey.
Topic:
Agriculture, Climate Change, Development, Environment, Natural Resources, Food, Investment, Land Rights, and Carbon Emissions
Political Geography:
Indonesia, Ghana, Bolivia, and Global Focus

3. Crowdsourcing for Climate-Smart Agriculture: Insights from the Bolivian Andes

Author:
Rafael Lindemann Taborga
Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The vast majority of family and smallholder farmers in developing countries do not have access to locally relevant weather forecasts, undermining their capacity to adapt to climate change. Anticipating climate related risks reduces farmers’ vulnerability as they can plan ahead and limit the damage caused by storms, extreme temperatures, pests and other weather-related events. A recent pilot experiment in the Bolivian Andes – run by a consortium of international and national non-profit organisations, research centres and Bolivia’s productive development bank – found that encouraging smallholder farmers to crowdsource agro-climatic information enhances the accuracy of local weather forecasts, increasing their adoption of climate-smart practices. As a cost-effective system, crowdsourcing can be harnessed to broaden the coverage of agro-climatic information services, while enhancing their local relevance by responding to actual needs. The basic principle of crowdsourcing is that of outsourcing a task traditionally performed by a designated agent to individuals, groups of people or a platform that share a common goal. Encouraging smallholder farmers to utilise technology to send reports from their farmlands fosters a sense of ownership and collaboration, thereby favouring forms of collective knowledge production and sharing.
Topic:
Agriculture, Climate Change, Energy Policy, Natural Resources, and Digital Policy
Political Geography:
Bolivia and United States of America

4. Experimental Field Evidence of Common Pool Resources: The Water Judge in Bolivia

Author:
Javier Aliaga Lordemann
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
Common pool resources (CPRs) are usually exploited one generation after another – often overexploited – meaning there is an intergenerational link between the consumers – e.g., water for farming activities. This key dimension is often not considered in theoretical or field experiments, due to the difficultly in approaching it. We want to overcome this barrier introducing the hypothesis of ‘’intergenerational altruism” for CPRs. The implication is that altruism reduce the exploitation of the natural resources, since the agents recognize that the exploitation not only creates negative externalities for their own generation, but also for all future generations. An alternative hypothesis is the ‘’intergenerational equity’’ where the agents restrain their consumption to equalize their income over time. To prove these hypotheses, we conducted a field experiment in four farming communities located in the Bolivian Department of Chuquisaca during the third quarter of 2019. We consider common water for farming activities as a CPRs, since these communities use this resource for several decades, the intergenerational link is evident. Our intergenerational field experiment includes four treatments based on the replacement rate of the resources – i.e., FAST, SLOW, RESTART or normal replacement, under one-shot non-cooperative game without feedback. We also introduce two variations, the possibility to accumulate water in a dam, which modify the availability of CPRs. Second, the possibility to manage the common farming water through the traditional social arrangement of the Water Judge, which is a representative member of the community delegated to solve problems related with water management, named SAT treatment. The results showed that our hypothesis was not probed since the intergenerational link does not mitigate the overexploitation of CPRs. Nevertheless, we also found that the “Water Judge” could be a cost-effective treatment in small farming communities.
Topic:
Environment, Natural Resources, and Water
Political Geography:
Bolivia

5. Natural gas pricing GSA Bolivia: Brazil using virtual hub and expected monetary value instruments

Author:
Sergio M. Medinaceli and Jorge L. Gumucio
Publication Date:
11-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
The purpose of this paper is to show the shortcomings of incentive policies, specifically competitiveness, if they are designed without considering fundamentals of market development such as, level of demand, level of investment, and availability of alternative sources of supply. We focus on the analysis of the main market, financial, and economic variables in the Bolivia-Brazil Gas Supply Agreement, their relationship, development and dynamics through time and the current situation before the contract is renegotiated in 2019. Our analysis centers on the effective negotiation margin that Bolivia has calculated from the overall production costs of Bolivian gas (using EMV) vis a vis the opportunity cost of Brazil importing LNG. Using 10%-15% as discount rates and WTI prices between $50 and $60/bbl, the natural gas price result of EMV is between $ 4.96 and $ 7.99/MMbtu. Using the Bolivian tax incentive gas price should be between $2.29 and $5.16/MMbtu. Under the assumptions that WTI levels would be around $ 60/bbl, investors use a 15% discount rate to invest in Bolivia, incentive policy is in place, and the price of LNG is around $ 6.84/MMbtu; the opportunity cost of Brazil importing gas from Bolivia is $ -0.55/MMbtu. The same case without incentive policy will yield a $ -3.38/MMbtu. On the other hand, if the transport tariff is reduced the margin becomes positive under the assumption that the incentive policy is still in place. Therefore, as the price of LNG becomes more competitive through increase in supply (worldwide), Brazil will set its negotiation position around the price that they could import LNG on the short to medium term.
Topic:
Markets, Regional Cooperation, Natural Resources, Monetary Policy, Gas, Macroeconomics, and Economic Development
Political Geography:
Brazil, Latin America, and Bolivia

6. Trading Forests: Quantifying the Contribution of Global Commodity Markets to Emissions from Tropical Deforestation

Author:
Martin Persson, Sabine Henders, and Thomas Kastner
Publication Date:
10-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
This paper aims to improve our understanding of how and where global supply-chains link consumers of agricultural and forest commodities across the world to forest destruction in tropical countries. A better understanding of these linkages can help inform and support the design of demand-side interventions to reduce tropical deforestation. To that end, we map the link between deforestation for four commodities (beef, soybeans, palm oil, and wood products) in eight case countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea) to consumption, through international trade. Although few, the studied countries comprise a large share of the internationally traded volumes of the analyzed commodities: 83% of beef and 99% of soybean exports from Latin America, 97% of global palm oil exports, and roughly half of (official) tropical wood products trade. The analysis covers the period 2000-2009. We find that roughly a third of tropical deforestation and associated carbon emissions (3.9 Mha and 1.7 GtCO2) in 2009 can be attributed to our four case commodities in our eight case countries. On average a third of analyzed deforestation was embodied in agricultural exports, mainly to the EU and China. However, in all countries but Bolivia and Brazil, export markets are dominant drivers of forest clearing for our case commodities. If one excludes Brazilian beef on average 57% of deforestation attributed to our case commodities was embodied in exports. The share of emissions that was embodied in exported commodities increased between 2000 and 2009 for every country in our study except Bolivia and Malaysia.
Topic:
Energy Policy, Environment, and Natural Resources
Political Geography:
China, Europe, Malaysia, Brazil, Argentina, Latin America, and Bolivia

7. Rethinking the Consultation-Conflict Link: Lessons from Bolivia's Gas Sector

Author:
Almut Schilling-Vacaflor
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
This article sheds light on 26 consultations in Bolivia's gas sector (2007–2012) and challenges simplified conceptions of prior consultation as a tool for conflict prevention and resolution. It shows that consultations do not only appease conflicts, but also exacerbate them as these procedures are used to negotiate broader grievances. This study further argues that narrow consultations (like those carried out in Bolivia) – rather than comprehensive ones – repress conflicts in the short‐term by limiting opportunities to mobilize against extractive projects. It also reveals that the degree of conflict and prevention potential of consultations varied according to the affected groups and highlights the ambiguous effects of the entanglement of consultations and compensations.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Energy Policy, Natural Resources, and Governance
Political Geography:
Latin America and Bolivia

8. Democratizing Resource Governance through Prior Consultations? Lessons from Bolivia's Hydrocarbon Sector

Author:
Almut Schilling-Vacaflor
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
With the recent expansion of extractive industries in Latin America, contestations with the affected communities have increased in number and intensity. Therein, the indigenous right to prior consultation and to free, prior and informed consent has played a crucial role. Based on the empirical study of several consultation processes in Bolivia's hydrocarbon sector since 2007 and referring to deliberative theories as well as human rights norms, this article explores the enabling and constraining factors in the democratization of resource governance through these procedures. While the specificities of consultations in plurinational Bolivia are taken into account, the study also draws general conclusions for similar processes in other resource‐reliant countries.
Topic:
Democratization, Human Rights, Natural Resources, and Governance
Political Geography:
Latin America and Bolivia

9. Insights from Bolivia’s Green National Accounts

Author:
Luis Carlos Jemio and Lykke E. Andersen
Publication Date:
12-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
The purpose of the present paper is to demonstrate the usefulness of Green National Accounting by drawing out some interesting insights from the Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounts recently elaborated by the Institute for Advanced Development Studies for the case of Bolivia. The paper uses the Green National Accounts to show the importance of environmental inputs in 7 different productive sectors and compares the corresponding natural resource rents to the level of producer taxes in each sector. The paper also analyses the evolution of total productive capital, in order to judge whether Bolivia’s current development model can be considered sustainable. The paper finished with recommendations about interesting extensions that can be made to the Green National Accounts.
Topic:
Development, Environment, Natural Resources, and Economy
Political Geography:
South America and Bolivia

10. Analysis of the Hydrocarbon Sector in Bolivia: How Are the Gas and Oil Revenues Distributed?

Author:
Christian Velasquez-Donaldson
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
This report analyzes the importance of the hydrocarbon sector in Bolivia. The oil and gas sector currently represents a vital component of the Bolivian economy, accounting for 7 percent of the GDP in term of production and more than 30 percent of total government income. In addition, the hydrocarbon sector not only represents an important economic sector but also a political and social instrument for negotiations, mobilization and social participation. The hydrocarbon sector in Bolivia also plays a strategic geopolitical role in South America as it has the second largest reserves of natural gas in the region after Venezuela. However, the current Bolivian nationalization process has placed this privileged position of the country into question as Bolivia is trying to undo twenty years of neo-liberal policies with the adoption of more nationalistic policies, assuming the control of the sector and challenging the international community and the private sector to benefit its population. The report also exposes that the important hydrocarbon revenues are not evenly distributed across the country’s regions. The most important instruments of taxation, royalties and the IDH, are creating a disequilibrium implying that regions with large populations get considerably fewer resources than less populated regions. In addition, the current distribution system, which is based on political criteria with some regional notion of fairness, is discriminatory in the allocation of resources with out taking into account poverty criteria. In a poor country like Bolivia with a strong political framework on poverty alleviation, the lack of poverty criteria in the distribution system of such significant resources makes 1.5 million poor people from La Paz get fewer resources than 300 thousand poor people from Pando in terms of per capita distribution ($16 dollars per capita in La Paz vs. $600 dollars per capita in Pando). The report has found that the distribution system of the hydrocarbon revenues needs serious changes to be more efficient and accomplish the goal of poverty reduction. The current system of revenue allocation creates significant per capita inequalities between regions and exacerbates the regional dependency on central transfers that depends on exhaustible and unstable hydrocarbon production (92 percent of the prefecturas’ revenues and 66 percent of the municipalities’ revenues come from government transfers). In addition, the decentralization process of the country has several weaknesses. It does not allow local governments to create their own tributary policies and generate their own resources, with exception of municipalities that to some extent can administrate and collect two regional taxes defined by the central government. This disequilibrium has the potential to seriously threaten the unity of the country as a nation. This situation will encourage producing regions to push for a large degree of decentralization in order to take advantage of the enormous inflows of resources that the sector is generating. In addition, non-producing regions will push for a significant share of those large resources given the severe degree of poverty in the country. This leads to two important questions to ask; first, who owns the natural resources, producing regions or the central government, and second, how those revenues should be distributed? In general, those questions are hard to answer and in most cases the answers have significant political notions. In this aspect, the report presents results of a hypothetical calculation in which we combine to some extent the notion that producing regions have the right to a share of the revenues as does the central government. Because producing regions have solid arguments to claim ownership, like natural heritage and social cost reimbursement, we found undesirable and unviable the idea of completely draining those resources from them. Nonetheless, the central government also has significant arguments to have a share of those revenues, like income stability, fiscal equilibrium and macroeconomic considerations. Therefore, we found it important that the central government should benefit from a share of the natural wealth. However, the results of the hypothetical exercise presented in this report have the objective of opening the debate and dialogue for needed changes in the Bolivian hydrocarbon distribution system rather than suggesting a definitive answer for a distribution system in Bolivia.
Topic:
Oil, Natural Resources, Gas, Revenue Management, and Hydrocarbons
Political Geography:
South America and Bolivia