During the months of June and August 2022, we have had the opportunity to evaluate the project "Environmental governance and consolidation of sustainable production systems in the Departments of Boquerón/Alto Paraguay (Paraguay) and Santa Cruz/Chuquisaca (Bolivia)" financed by the Delegation of the European Union in Bolivia and co-financed and executed by the Peasant Research and Promotion Center (CIPCA) as project coordinator, OXFAM Bolivia, OXFAM Paraguay, Indigenous Procommunities (PCI) of Paraguay and Alter Vida of Paraguay. This Project was designed and executed with the objective of contributing to environmental and productive sustainability in the degraded biomes of the Chaco, the Chiquitano Dry Forest and the Pantanal of South America, as a basis to allow the population that lives in that territory, mainly indigenous people to improve their situation and condition.

To achieve this objective, the Project proposed the following strategies: (i) strengthen capacities at various levels (individuals, families, productive associations, leaders/managers, communities and organizations) and issues (resilient development, governance, use of technologies for production sustainable, concerted demands and proposals, entrepreneurship management) of the indigenous and peasant population, with an action especially aimed at women and young people; (ii) improve the sustainability of the productive dynamic, linked to technological innovations for production, water resource management, and the promotion of agroecological economic enterprises; and (iii) improve governance in resilient development of biomes based on knowledge management, interaction between diverse actors on face-to-face and virtual platforms, and the formalization of spaces for political dialogue between indigenous/peasant organizations and departmental authorities for development. , promotion and application of agreements, policies and strategies at the regional level.

It has been very interesting to verify that this Project has achieved important advances and favorable effects in the implementation territories, but the need to continue accompanying and strengthening these processes has also been seen, since the threats to nature reserves and indigenous nations in this region are latent, and in the face of a weak political will to stop the advance of the agricultural frontier and subjugation, it seems that the only possible response is self-management and defense of the land-territory from within, based on its organic structures. and adaptive territorial management, and therefore, these are long-term processes.