Bolivia MP Pushes Carbon Law Affecting Own Foundation — SkimNews
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- Bolivia's constitutional court struck down the country's carbon-market ban in June 2024, ending a 2010 "rights of Mother Earth" law that had effectively outlawed the commodification of nature.
- The Federico Hecker Foundation signed a 30-year contract in March 2024 covering 440,000 hectares of the Multi-ethnic Indigenous Territory II (TIM II); by March 2025 the territory's board and Ese Ejja nation formally rejected it, saying representatives had been "surprised, pressured and manipulated" into signing.
- MP Aimé Hecker Urresti, elected in 2025 and listed as the foundation's chairman, is one of four MPs co-sponsoring a 2025 bill to regulate the carbon market his family's foundation operates in; he denies any conflict of interest.
- Supreme Decree 5264 (October 2024) centralizes control of Bolivia's carbon market in the national government but excludes Indigenous authorities and sets no binding rules on consent, carbon ownership or benefit-sharing on Indigenous land.
- President Rodrigo Paz Pereira's pro-business government is touting Bolivia as a new carbon-credit source and aims to sell "billions of dollars' worth" in coming years, while a new bill grants consultation rights but no veto to Indigenous communities.
- An internal EU-Sweden €24m climate programme document credits the initiative with "significant support" for Bolivia's carbon-market opening, even as the EU delegation insists it "did not influence or participate directly" in the decree.
Why it matters: Bolivia's push to sell "billions" in carbon credits rests on contracts Indigenous leaders say they didn't understand, signed with a foundation whose chairman now sits in congress writing the rules — putting territorial rights protected by ILO convention 169 directly against state-orchestrated climate finance, with European money in the background.
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