BLUE GOLD INDIGENOUS MEDIA PROJECT

By Aymar Ccopacatty

The Blue Gold Indigenous Media Project will stimulate and re-enforce urgent action already underway to protect Indigenous Aymara and Quechua peoples rights to the natural resources of Lake Titicaka. The Lakes’ water and biodiversity has been used for non-industrial, subsistence agriculture by these Indigenous peoples since unrecorded time.

There is concern amongst Indigenous groups about the future of Lake Titicaka in the context of current global water shortages, privatization of public enterprises and multi-national corporations desire to buy up as much natural resource commodity as possible. These concerns are not necessarily relieved by the creation of various National Reserves by the Governments of Bolivia and Peru, or by these government’s applications to UNESCO for World Heritage Status. It seems these governmental organizations have in mind the preservation of Natural Resources, yet for whom? The majority of these organizations work without concern for or consultation with the Indigenous Aymara and Quechua peoples who have prospered by the wise use of these resources since time immemorial.

The Aymara and Quechua people’s life is difficult; they live in a fragmented world. Their traditional knowledge has been dismantled by five hundred years of religious dogma. They are left with fragments of an ancient culture and fragments of a modernized world that only manifests itself in the illusionary television and radio programs, which spread want with no opportunity for achievement. Poverty is there only certainty, a poverty not of food or clothing, but a poverty of access to the tools with which modern humanity shapes its diverse world view.

This project is based on the notion that these Indigenous Peoples, having the largest stake in the future of this great resource, retain an obvious right to participate with the powerful forces that are shaping that future.

Broad Goals of the project:

- Raise awareness to indigenous peoples about regional governmental and non- governmental organizations programs and funds related to the protection of Lake Titicaka.

- Encourage representation of Indigenous voices within environmental groups.

- Assist the Indigenous Land and Water Rights Movements in defining a clear stance about their aboriginal rights toward governments, civil society and environmental groups.

- Support implementation of several of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (described below) in the Lake Titicaka Region.