sector history, which are characterised by:
(i) Highland Control and Lowland
Concessions (1825-1952), ii) Centrally
Planned Economic Development (1953-
1992); and iii) Deregulation and
Decentralisation of the State (1993-present)
(Fig. 1).
Highland control and lowland con-
cessions (1825-1952)
Throughout history, the socioeconomic and
political powers in Bolivia have resided in
the highlands. After the Spanish invasion,
the powerful Spanish elite settled in the
highlands and developed several commodity
industries. Eventually they constructed the
necessary road infrastructure to export sil-
ver, rubber, tin, and gas via the ports on the
Pacific coast.^9 The lowlands populations, on
the other hand, consisted mostly of indige-
nous groups who were locally rooted in a
combination of subsistence and local market
production, largely disconnected from cen-
tral government and international mar-
kets.^10 Demographically, the two regions
could not have been more different in the
19th century—the population density was
high and rising in the highlands while the
lowlands remained virtually unsettled by
white men and only sparsely populated by
indigenous groups and rubber tappers.^11
The Bolivian government regime in the 19th
century may be defined as a feudalist state
that was created to maximise the gains
from the export-oriented exploitation of the
highland’s mineral resources. Most analysts
attribute the origins of this system to the
“300-year process of Spanish colonisation
and dual society”.^12 The government’s atti-
tude towards the lowlands at the time was
that most of this land was either uninhabit-
ed or ill-inhabited.^13 The attitude among the
highland settlers was not much different as
“the Aymara and Quechua population dread
the lowlands as they dread the plague”.^14
The government tried to establish indirect
control over the territory by giving out
large, privately financed land concessions in
the lowlands to powerful third party estates.
Throughout this period, the absence of gov-
ernmental organisations characterised the
lowlands. An observer from this period
offered this description: “You speak of
Bolivia to a Lecco Indian or to a man from
the Beni, the Madre de Dios, the Aten, or
the Challana, and they will tell you that they
do not recognise a government which does
nothing for them except to collect a person-
al contribution.”^15 Twenty years later, geo-
graphical explorer Edwards asked a canoe
operator in the Beni river in the lowlands
about what he thought of the government.
The man replied: “Government? What is
that? We know no government here.”^16
In the absence of government, a large part
of the forested areas of the lowlands was
an open-access resource governed by the
“law of the jungle”, by which the most
aggressive and strongest was able to gain
control over the resources. Because of the
highland’s people’s fear of the indigenous
groups in the lowlands, these groups were
able to go about their lives relatively undis-
turbed by concession holders, rubber tap-
pers, and other “developmentalists”. The
Jesuit priests, however, did have a signifi-
cant impact on the indigenous population.
History, cculture aand cconservation
Figure 3.Rubber tapper camp in Northern Beni,
in the early 20th century. Photo by P H Fawcett,
- (Courtesy The Royal Geographical Society).
