The Access Initiative

Bolivia

1.19

Environmental Democracy Index Score

Bolivia’s scores were fair on all three pillars of the Environmental Democracy Index. While the constitution grants the public the right to access environmental information on request, only a few government authorities must proactively make environmental information public. The public does enjoy the right to participate in decision making on all projects affecting the environment. However, only a limited set of decisions require government authorities to respond to public comments and make decisions public. As for the Justice pillar, the public can challenge government and private-actor decisions on environmental matters. However, there are no assistance mechanisms in place to address economic and gender-based barriers to accessing review procedures.

Visit the Environmental Democracy Index to explore the EDI score.

The TAI coalition in Bolivia has been promoting the Principle 10 since 2004. It has been carrying out lobbying and advocacy activities for improving access to information and participation. It has organized workshops and distributed press articles, bulletins, brochures and books. The Coalition carried out a TAI assessment published in 2005 and delivered it widely. It has organized  workshops for the public sector in different regions of Bolivia. The Coalition lobbied for the implementation of the National System of Environmental Information and participated in the elaboration of environmental laws and regulations. Thanks to the proposals of the Coalition, access rights were included in the New Bolivian Constitution that was aproved by Referendum in 2009. In 2010 the coalition using the WRI`s ARIA toolkit assessed access rights on adaptation to climate change. This assessment was widely distributed in the whole country. The coalition curretly is working with civil society organizations to push for an Adaptation Agenda in the country.