News
On Tuesday 12 March, Canning House hosted a roundtable with His Excellency David Choquehuanca Céspedes, Vice-President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, where he presented Bolivia’s vision of “Living Well” (“Vivir bien” in Spanish) in harmony with Pachamama (Mother Nature).
On Tuesday 12 March, Canning House hosted a roundtable with His Excellency David Choquehuanca Céspedes, Vice-President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, where he presented Bolivia’s vision of “Living Well” (“Vivir bien” in Spanish) in harmony with Pachamama (Mother Nature). This implies a dynamic equilibrium in the relations between people and nature, as well as the spiritual satisfaction that comes with that balance.
The Vice-President argued that capitalism is an exclusionary system that provokes a disconnection between human beings and nature, leading to a multidimensional crisis where all the natural cycles are out of balance. To address this situation, HE highlighted the importance of recovering and applying the ancestral wisdom of indigenous peoples (“Defend the past to defend the future”, in his words). The Vice-President also mentioned the need to implement cooperative systems involving developing and developed countries, academics, and the private sector, among other actors. Specifically, looking towards COP30, he proposed a regional Amazonian mechanism for mitigation and adaptation to the climate crisis, not based on carbon markets.
After HE David Choquehuanca’s presentation, the discussion was opened to questions and comments. These included topics such as the challenges that a developing country like Bolivia may face in trying to influence global climate policies, the importance of including a broad range of indigenous concepts in documents and proposals on the Bolivian position, and the tensions between the extraction of natural resources (lithium, in particular) and the preservation of nature. HE Choquehuanca replied with three final thoughts: common natural resources and shared challenges put countries in a situation of interdependence, complementarity and need for cooperation; the recovery of indigenous knowledge is a learning process full of challenges; and advanced green technologies have a crucial role in the sustainable use of natural resources.
*Jimena Avejera Udaeta is a political scientist and MSc candidate in Development Management, London School of Economics and Political Science.
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