ABSTRACT
Recent debates in Bolivia and in many other developing countries have emphasized the need to improve the natural resource base of the poor as an instrument to combat poverty. Improving the access to and control of water and land is considered a crucial factor in improving agricultural production (and, thus, incomes), improving health and realizing the agro-ecological goals of sustainable land use (World Bank, 1996; UN, 2003). In a previous government's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), which is aimed at combating extreme poverty in rural areas, it is argued that there is a close connection between land and water scarcity, on the one hand, and poverty, on the other, and that actions to address the former are the key to fighting poverty (PRSP Bolivia, 2001). The paper also emphasizes the need to ‘regulate rural landownership and the modernization of the system for the registry of property rights and land registry’ and to ‘create irrigation systems’ (PRSP Bolivia, 2001, pp100–104). ‘Insufficiently defined ownership rights to land and natural resources have been a source of uncertainty and inefficient land use. In addition, water shortage has restricted productivity gains and expansion in the scale of production, and has made producers more vulnerable’ (PRSP Bolivia, 2001, p4). Sound water and land management and clearly defined rights are presented as key elements in helping poor people to improve their lives. Such ideas, now converted into a more community-centred focus respecting existing water rights and the ‘usos y costumbres’ approach (see also Chapters 2, 3 and 15 in this volume), also continue to feed current policy proposals.
