After the flood: expansion and retreat of Indigenous autonomy and environmental justice

Since the 1990s, various Latin American countries have acknowledged more inclusive Indigenous rights, including the right to territorial autonomy. Indigenous autonomy helps ensure environmental justice by reclaiming Indigenous peoples’ environmental decision-making power and the (re)production of relationships in their territories. However, being dynamic and relational, autonomy is always an ongoing and incomplete process. Here, I analyze the fluctuations of de jure and de facto Indigenous autonomy over three decades in Bolivia’s Isiboro Sécure Indigenous Territory and National Park (TIPNIS). Drawing on the capability approach, I track the evolution of empirical meanings of Indigenous autonomy: territorial defense and consolidation, dignified livelihoods, the strength of social fabrics, and uncoerced decision-making. Results show fluctuations of autonomy levels over time, mirrored by varying levels of environmental injustices, from distributional dimensions related to the costs and benefits of natural resource use and exploitation, and procedural issues related to decision-making processes, to recognitional issues related to redefinitions of who are the Indigenous people deserving to be part of the Plurinational State. This analysis clarifies the relationships between de jure and de facto Indigenous autonomy dimensions and a better understanding of the implications of such processes for environmental justice in Indigenous territories.