In December 2010, Bolivia made headlines worldwide when it passed the Ley de Derechos de la Madre Tierra, or what became globally known as the country’s ‘Mother Earth Law’. The groundbreaking legislation gave legal rights to the environment. That is to say, in Bolivia, nature itself is protected by law, and in fact has its own voice within the government, via the creation of the Defensoría de la Madre Tierra, an office tasked with ensuring that the rights of nature are protected. Those rights largely encompass its relations with human society – within the law, ‘ecosystem’ means more than the natural world; it includes the social, cultural and economic impacts of human behaviour on the environment.
This is not to say that Bolivia’s relations with nature have since been completely harmonious. Litter remains an issue in cities and towns across the country, and pollution from agriculture and mining continue to plague Bolivia’s watersheds. Additionally, new government-funded programs will certainly have adverse effects on the environment. For example, in 2015 the government passed a law that opened up national parks and other protected areas to mining and oil concessions, and most recently Bolivia has broken ground on a nuclear-power research centre in El Alto. While some supporters of these projects insist their implementation can be consistent with the law protecting Mother Earth, many others question the ecological sustainability of such endeavours.
These pressing issues got us here at Bolivian Express thinking about the word ‘sustainability’. This ‘Mother Earth Law’, reinforced (and to some extent re-envisioned) through additional legislation in 2012, is intended to promote a healthy balance between natural systems and human action; the goal is to maintain existing ecologies in the long term, to ensure the sustainability of the natural world. But beyond the common associations with the environment, the term ‘sustainability’ is rooted in the key ideas of time and of endurance. Sustainability isn’t just about nature or ecology, it is about deep relationships; it is about politics and economics.
In this issue of Bolivian Express, we looked into this idea of ‘sustainability’ to explore not only ideas of ecological responsibility, but also ideas of consistency, of endurance, of continuation. We travelled to locales as diverse as the salt flats of Uyuni and the cloud forests of Caranavi in the Nor Yungas region to learn about technology-based solutions for litter cleanup and new strategies to support Bolivia’s coffee industry. We learned about the idea of ‘sustainable mining’, and Bolivia’s important role in the organic quinoa industry. We met people in the tourism industry invested in maintaining Bolivia’s environmental and cultural wonders through responsible tourism.
A common thread we often found in our work for this issue was the idea that for anything to endure, adaptation almost invariably has to happen. And we did not fall short in meeting individuals and groups finding new ways to work with old materials to make something new. We met designers who employ recycled items, from plant material to engine parts, to create clothing and sculptures. Such art gives old material new life, and this theme of sustainability through rebirth carried itself through this issue, through the maintenance of La Paz’s famous, ancient micro buses to the younger generation’s interest in finding their own fashion voice through the purchasing of used clothing.
Bolivia’s relationship with the environment is as complex as it is critical. The ability of the government to carry out its initiatives, from infrastructure development to social programs, is directly tied to its ability to capitalize on the bountiful resources Bolivia has to offer. But this can come with costs. Today we have the opportunity to experience how a society, taking a lead in creating legal frameworks to regulate human engagement with the environment, carries out such an initiative in the real world. We also have a chance to navigate a country where cultures and traditions stretch back for generations, even centuries. Let’s see what it takes to keep these traditions alive in a constantly evolving and changing world.
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Photo: Madeleine Pollard
Yoshi Homna’s Revolutionary Plan to Clear Uyuni’s Peripheral Wasteland
‘Close your eyes if you see any rubbish; we are really trying to work on it,’ pleads our tour guide with an embarrassed smile as the jeep trundles out of Uyuni, the gateway town for backpackers touring the the world’s largest salt flat. Metres from where tourists clamber over the rusting skeletons of locomotives in el cementerio de trenes, resting near Bolivia’s famous salar, a less aesthetically endearing vision of abandonment colours the landscape. Litter itches at the smoothness of the horizon, containing within it waves of household waste – orange peels, used nappies, car tyres, and a jungle of multicoloured plastic bags snagged against the charred desert weeds.
This vision is what 30-year-old international developer and environmentalist Yoshi Homna was greeted with increasingly regularly during his seven years as a tour guide of Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni. The rubbish, which is beginning to overshadow this ‘magical place’, prompted him to seek a revolutionary solution.
Attracting 1.2 million tourists each year, the salar has become one of Latin America’s most popular tourist destinations, and has been recognized as one of the world’s best photo opportunities. But a scourge of rubbish is a reality in some communities near the salt flats, a vision that contradicts the flood of photos on Instagram capturing the salar’s surreal expanse of shocking whiteness. In these images, every shard of salt defensively reflects the sun's piercing gaze back into the thin atmosphere, generating photos of phantasmagorical beauty. This relationship, that of el sol y la sal, is in fact what Yoshi is harnessing to solve the problem of waste near the salar.
According to Yoshi, the salar is not only threatened by the thousands of tourists that visit it, or even the Dakar Rally that rips through the landscape every year, but also from the inefficient waste-management system of Uyuni itself. The harshly remote city’s 10,460 inhabitants bury most of their waste underground, posing another biting problem for the surrounding environment and the salar’s remarkable beauty.
This accumulation of garbage prompted the creation of Yoshi’s autosustentable Project YOSI, in which solar energy will be used to convert waste plastic into petroleum fuel. Currently in storage in a lab at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA) in La Paz, the project’s machinery will heat plastic refuse into gas form, purify it, before cooling and condensing it into a liquid fuel.
A Japanese company, Solar Frontier, is providing solar panels designed to work efficiently at varied temperatures and light conditions, making the project both environmentally and economically beneficial.
The programme, Yoshi explains, will not only dispose of waste, but also generate electricity for local communities. Due to an unreliable electrical network and the dominance of large hotels that tax the system, locals frequently experience power shortages. Soon, with the project’s cutting-edge technology, residents will be able to turn their basura into la luz. Depending on how talks with the Bolivian government progress, Yoshi predicts that the project will be up and running by the end of the year. He hopes that this example of sustainability can be replicated elsewhere: ‘I dream of expanding this ethos of sustainability outwards, from the heart of the salar across the entire country.’
For the locals who live in Uyuni, the popularity of Yoshi’s sustainable venture is burgeoning. Sandra Pari, owner of Full Tours G&M, noted how the lack of waste disposal vehicles renders the tarred streets a jackpot for scavenging dogs, whilst agrónomo Marcelino Mamani Mamani reflected on how the notoriety of Uyuni’s litter is detrimental to its natural surroundings and to its image as a town. Both welcome Project YOSI with open arms, regarding it as hope for the future of Uyuni and the truly fascinating environment of the salar.
Photo: Gabrielle Mcguinness
Marion Macédo’s Quest to Make Art From the Unwanted
Each day we fill our bins to the brim with scraps of paper, cardboard boxes and bundles of packaging, a clear sign that paper, an essential resource, is being inefficiently used and abhorrently neglected. For Bolivian artist Marion Macédo, however, paper can be reincarnated beyond the recycling bin.
Dangling from the ceiling on the far wall of her studio is a striking life-sized stencil of the tree of life, carved from a sheet of canvas that casts shadows upon the wall behind it. The soft light shines through each leaf-shaped gap. A few footsteps into the room and it becomes evident that nature deeply inspires Marion. ‘There is too much tragedy in the world for art to be about darkness,’ she utters. ‘Art should be something beautiful and inspiring that teaches us to be better.’
Every element of Marion’s artwork reflects her entrenched respect for the environment. The moulds she uses for her delicate, softly glowing lamps are discarded mannequins from her studio. An old drawer is saved from the skip and transformed into a picture frame. The German books she cuts, folds and draws on are bought from a local Lutheran church that sells off its unwanted literature.
Marion’s career as an artist began just 10 years ago, when she left her job at a Swiss marketing firm in La Paz for London, to study interior design and English. After five years abroad, she returned to La Paz to pursue a career in the art world. She established herself as an eminent artist through the growth of her old shop in Zona Sur, where she sold paper flower arrangements and jewellery.
When the French company Salon de Chocolat collaborated with the high-end Bolivian chocolate brand to improve their recipes, Marion was invited to design a fairy dress that was presented at the launch party in Paris. She made the dress using almost every element of the cocoa tree, from the bark to the bean. For four years, she has held free open-air fashion shows, modelling clothing made from reclaimed materials. This venture has left a lasting impression upon the public, earning her the blessings of complete strangers and the honor of judging an upcycled fashion catwalk at a local school.
Her attraction to environmentally friendly projects stems from her upbringing. Marion reminisces about her parents and their expansive garden, blooming with trees, flowers and fruits in abundance. Her father nurtured her creativity while her mother warned her about breaking flowers or leaves out of respect for nature.
This explains Marion’s choice of paper as her favoured artistic medium, a stepping stone between art and nature. Like the endless variety of the natural world, her experimentations, which vary from cutting, sticking, dyeing, shredding, folding, ripping, painting and even knitting, demonstrate that paper actually possesses an inherent versatility and raw beauty.
Beyond its initial aesthetic appeal, her artwork radiates the values associated with Pachamama, in the hope of sculpting a more loving and ethical society. She believes art and education can help paceños deal with the rising levels of stress in the city and prevent the destruction of her country’s environment, for which she professes an undying pride. Although she may seem too compassionate to be human, she is humble to a fault, which is why she denies her evident creativity.
‘There is too much tragedy in the world for art to be about darkness.’
—Marion Macédo
Photos: Madeleine Pollard
Sustenance exists in many forms: food, drink, money, reggaeton. Reggaeton!?
We asked ciudadanos on the meandering streets of La Paz ‘What sustains you?,’ probing the motivational forces in their lives.
Eulogia
Age: 51
Profession: construction worker
Necessity – I have six children whom I must provide for and there is no one else to help me. This need is what keeps me going, the need to care for my children as well as to make them happy.
Oscar
Age: 55
Profession: Advertising
My family, my Bolivia and faith in ser supremo – my god. He sustains me every day, and every year I return from Buenos Aires for el día de la paz to see my family, a tradition motivated by my identity as a Bolivian and one that has lasted 35 years.
Racinto
Age: 70
Profession: Orange juice vendor
Plata – I was a construction worker until I grew too old, now I sell oranges all year round, but as there is no work for me in the countryside I must come to the city. The need to work and the joy my grandchildren bring me are the most important things in my life.
Olga and Judith
Ages: 32, 9
Profession: Hand puppet designers/sellers
Olga: My children – my son died as a baby in 2003, so I designed these hand puppets to pay him tribute and to make money for our family. My daughter Judith helps me sell them along El Prado. She loves to dance, dance is what keeps her going.
Judith: Yes, especially reggaeton! And mathematics – that’s my favourite subject at school. I love to multiply and to divide.
Olga: And health, you must not forget your health – looking after yourself is the most important thing.
Mauro
Age: 17
Profession: Student
My parents, friends, strategy computer games, football and the pursuit of adventure. When life gets difficult I like to be alone with my music.
Heidi
Age: 23
Profession: Student
I have had two very traumatising experiences in my life. To keep me going I tried to find other people, a place to run to, but then I realised that you can’t find peace in others or somewhere external, you have to find it inside yourself first. I realised that I am my own source of happiness. I like visiting isolated places and sitting in silence – nowadays not many people can stand silence, they are always on their phone, but self-reflection is peace for me. I found that charity work is another source of motivation, giving and not asking for anything in return, making a positive impact in someone else’s life even when yours is difficult.
