| In 1995, the Capitania del Alto y Bajo Izozog (CABI), an Izoceño-Guarani Indian organization, became co-manager of the Gran Chaco Kaa Iya National Park (GCNP), one of the largest protected areas in the world. During the mid-1990s, CABI also became involved in numerous facets of decentralized governance and development. Many in academic and policy circles have embraced such processes of decentralization as an alternative, better form of governance. Yet, there is insufficient analysis of the contexts in which it is possible and its results. I examine these pressing questions through a case study of CABI's unprecedented achievements, which, to date, in addition to co-management of the GCNP have included: (1) co-management of the USAID funded Kaa-Iya Project, (2) creation, along with multinational gas companies, of the Indigenous People's Development Project, and (3) participation in local governance. I argue that CABI's successful ability to become a significant actor in these multiple decentralized settings was the result of two factors: (a) a positive policy context resulting from the recasting of Bolivia's sociopolitical universe through decentralization and a series of land and social policy reforms, and (b) CABI's hybrid organizational structure, a combination of Guarani tradition and modern institutional forms of management which is the result of historical interaction with other socio-cultural, spatial, and economic milieux.; I argue that local livelihood strategies in Izozog are heterogeneous and highly linked to seasonal migrant wage labor. In the region, there are also important levels of social, ethnic and religious differentiation. In this context, decentralization has produced greater biodiversity conservation, land tenure security, and improvements in social conditions. By contextualizing this example of decentralization, I demonstrate how structural and discursive conditions limited CABI's access to power and its ability to transform greater local autonomy into alternative, more equitable development rooted in local socioculturally based livelihoods and capacities.; This research was conducted at various sites in Bolivia including Izozog, Santa Cruz and La Paz. Data was collected through participant observation, household surveys, structured and open-ended interviews, and archival research. |
