José A. Landriel Pedraza
The silent agony of Bolivian ecosystems urgently challenges those who aspire to direct from the presidency, the fate of the country. While the world advances towards a new legal paradigm that recognizes rights to nature, as evidenced by emblematic cases in New Zealand, Colombia and Spain; Bolivia navigates uncertainty in a paradox that threatens its ecological future.
With great advertising and rhetoric, our country was a pioneer in developing a regulatory framework that granted rights to Mother Earth as equivalent to the rights of nature in other latitudes. The harmonious interpretation of constitutional articles and specific laws configured a system of integral protection of ecosystems that symbolically positioned Bolivia as an international reference. However, the current reality reveals a flagrant contradiction between revolutionary political discourse and ecosystem devastation that ravages the territory that welcomes us.
With evidence and objectivity, the numbers are devastating, thus, the dramatic loss of 14 million hectares by fires in 2024, barely represents the sample of a systemic crisis and climbing exponentially in decades, as evident, the rivers agonize under the weight From pollution, soils are degraded at alarming rhythms and mercury and other mortal chemical Water. This reality marks a resounding failure in the implementation of constitutional guarantees that, more than fifteen years ago, promised a future of harmony between development and nature.
Constitutional omission is more serious when we observe how other countries transform their commitments into concrete actions, and without constitutions or laws that force them. Recently, on January 30, 2025 the web portal of the British newspaper The Guardian announced that, in New Zealand, a mountain, the third most important in dimensions of his country called Taranaki Mounga, he had the same rights as a person , a line consistent with its precedents, since the Whatanganui River in New Zealand was recognized as a living being since 2017, enjoying effective protection. The Colombian Amazon was declared a subject of rights in 2018, finding support in tangible public policies. Even, at present, in Spain a historical trial is prepared where Mar Menor (previously recognized by the Constitutional Court in 2024, as a subject of rights) will appear as an affected part, marking a milestone in European ecological justice.
In Bolivia, despite having constitution and specific laws that protect these rights, the effect of inconsistency, incoherence and lack of political will is unobjectable. Therefore, the historical moment that Bolivia lives, at the doors of defining its course beyond the Bicentennial of Independence, demands a deep reflection on the long -term development and solution model in connection with ecosystem care. The “ecological pauses” and other vague and superficial measures have demonstrated their insufficiency against the magnitude of the challenge. Future government programs must overcome empty rhetoric and predatory extractivism that has characterized the country’s relationship with its natural resources.
Certainly, Bolivian society deserves proposals that integrate economic development with environmental preservation and candidates have the historical responsibility to present strategies that recognize the human being as part of a major ecosystem, before crossing irreversible thresholds of ecological deterioration. The international experience described, demonstrates that it is possible to harmonize progress and conservation when there is real political will.
What is prescribed by article 9 numeral 6 of the Political Constitution of the Bolivian State, does not admit more delay or convenient interpretations, so the protection of ecosystems must be transformed from dead letter into state policy, transcending electoral cycles and sectoral interests. Citizens await government programs that offer structural solutions to a crisis that threatens not only the present but the natural legacy for future generations.
A challenge is avizo, you can continue along the path of deterioration and devastation or take advantage of this electoral situation to urgently rethink the relationship with nature. The rights of Mother Earth, enshrined in national legislation, cry out for an effective implementation that transcends political discourse and materializes in concrete actions. The future of Bolivian ecosystems, and with them the well -being of all, depends on the decisions taken today.
