Almut Schilling-Vacaflor

Unfulfilled promises of the consultation approach: the limits to effective indigenous participation in Bolivia’s and Peru’s extractive industries

Abstract Indigenous peoples’ right to prior consultation and to informed consent represents the basis of the new global model shaping state–indigenous relations. Consultation processes promise to enable indigenous people to determine their own development and are especially promoted when extraction projects with significant socio-environmental impacts are planned on indigenous lands. In this article we draw on debates on participatory development in order to analyse the first state-led consultations in Bolivia’s and Peru’s hydrocarbon sectors (2007–14). The analysis shows that effective participation has been limited by (1) an absence of indigenous ownership of the processes; (2) indigenous groups’ difficulties defending or even articulating their own visions and demands; and (3) limited or very general outcomes. The study identifies real-life challenges, such as power asymmetries, a ‘communication hurdle’ and appropriate timing – as well as simplistic assumptions underlying the consultation approach – that account for the unfulfilled promises of this new model.

Rethinking the link between consultation and conflict: lessons from Bolivia's gas sector

Abstract This article sheds light on 26 consultations in Bolivias gas sector (2007–2012) and challenges simplified conceptions of prior consultation as a tool for conflict prevention and resolution. It shows that consultations do not only appease, but also exacerbate conflicts, as they are used for negotiating broader grievances. The study further argues that, in the short term, narrow consultations repress conflicts by limiting opportunities to mobilise against extractive projects. It also reveals that the degree of conflict and prevention potential of consultations varies according to the affected groups and highlights the ambiguous effects of the entanglement of consultations and compensations.

Conflict Transformation through Prior Consultation? Lessons from Peru

This article analyses the background to and the content of the Peruvian prior consultation law – the only one enacted in Latin America to date – and its regulating decree. In contrast to the widespread conception that prior consultation is a means for preventing and resolving conflict, it argues that this new legislation will not help to transform conflicts as long as the normative framework itself is contested and the preconditions for participatory governance are not in place. Establishing these preconditions would result in state institutions capable of justly balancing the diverse interests at stake; measures that reduce power asymmetries within consultations; and joint decision-making processes with binding agreements.

Democratizing Resource Governance through Prior Consultations? Lessons from Bolivia’s Hydrocarbon Sector

With the recent expansion of extractive industries in Latin America, contestations with the affected communities have increased in number and intensity. Therein, the indigenous right to prior consultation and to free, prior and informed consent has played a crucial role. Based on the empirical study of several consultation processes in Bolivia’s hydrocarbon sector since 2007 and referring to deliberative theories as well as human rights norms, this article explores the enabling and constraining factors in the democratization of resource governance through these procedures. While the specificities of consultations in plurinational Bolivia are taken into account, the study also draws general conclusions for similar processes in other resource‐reliant countries.

New mechanisms of participation in extractive governance: between technologies of governance and resistance work

Abstract In this special issue, the focus is on the dynamics and use of participatory mechanisms related to the rapid expansion of the extractive industries worldwide and the ways it increasingly affects sensitive natural environments populated by indigenous and other marginalised populations. We offer an empirically grounded and theoretically innovative comparative analysis of practices that aim to enhance participation, negotiation and influence as a response to the expansion of extractive industries. On the one hand, we question the assumption often presented in scholarly debates that participatory processes will contribute to making environmental governance not only more legitimate and effective, but will also lead to the empowerment of marginalised social groups. On the other, we draw on our empirical studies and insights to indicate ways local groups and their allies try to gain ownership and influence decision-making through a range of related participatory mechanisms, ranging from state-led or corporation-led processes like prior consultation and FPIC, compensation practices, participatory planning exercises and the participation in environmental impact assessments (EIAs) to community-led consultations, or community-based or controlled FPIC and impact assessment processes and struggles for community-based governance of natural resource uses.

Who controls the territory and the resources? Free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) as a contested human rights practice in Bolivia

Abstract The article scrutinises the struggles over prior consultation and free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) and analyses the divergent interpretations of what this right would entail in Bolivia. Similar contestations have played an important role in resource conflicts across Latin America. Using rich empirical data, the article discusses (1) disputes over legal norms regulating this participatory right, (2) related claims to territorial control and resource sovereignty, and (3) consultation participants’ constrained influence. In doing so, it focuses on the Guaraní’s diverse attempts to shape consultation processes and their outcomes according to their own ends and shows how many of these initiatives have been curtailed.