ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that progressive governments in South America have utilized an Indigenous rights discourse. It examines the exceptional cases of Ecuador and Bolivia. The constitutional recognition of plurinationality in Ecuador and Bolivia has significantly advanced the Indigenous rights agenda in the two countries. Under the direction of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, the movement managed to disrupt the implementation of neoliberal economic reforms throughout the 1990s. Natural resource governance must take Indigenous claims seriously to function fairly and effectively. The outcome of Ecuador's Yasuni- Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini initiative reveals the troublesome contradictions between the government's official discourse around Indigenous and environmental rights and its development practices and priorities on the ground. In Ecuador's National Development Plan, the term 'development' is used three times more frequently than the term 'living well', and 18 times more often than that of Indigenous autonomy.
