Indigenous people are using local languages, stronger community leadership and information passed down for generations to improve how they prepare for disasters.
Although Bolivia officially recognizes 36 Indigenous nations, nearly half the population has been excluded from the data and information used to shape disaster-risk plans.
Early warnings have often been unclear, shared only in Spanish, or disconnected from people’s day-to-day lives and traditional knowledge.
With support from Practical Action, communities worked to change that by bringing together ancestral practices and community-led learning with simple, practical communication tools.
Improvements to disaster-risk decision-making will help 20,000 people to reduce vulnerability in areas already facing increasingly severe climate impacts.
Strengthening community resilience is not just about having technology available. It requires information that is culturally relevant and easy for people to act on.
In this project, we connected communities’ ancestral knowledge with modern communication tools to create a system capable of generating and sharing clear, life-saving messages for disaster prevention and response.
Leon Lizon, Project Manager at Practical Action in Bolivia
This shift has been especially visible in the Tacana territory, where community leaders identified risk management and land-use planning as priorities for protecting their people. Through the Indigenous Tacana women’s council (CIMTA), the initiative Epuna ebuetsuji cuana (Women who teach) brought together 30 women to learn, lead and share solutions. Six of these women have already taken the approach across nearly 80% of their territory, reaching more than 300 people, many from the most vulnerable households.
When women meet in their own space, they speak openly about the changes they see in the climate and how it affects their families. Through this project, we learned from one another and developed practical solutions that make sense for our communities. Now we want to share what we have learned so others can also strengthen their resilience.
Selenia Amutari Marupa, member of the Indigenous Tacana Women’s Council (CIMTA)
The work also documented more than 30 natural indicators used for generations to anticipate climatic events such as environmental signs that elders read in plants, animals, and seasonal patterns.
These are now part of local risk-management plans and are feeding into national early-warning efforts through work with Platform of indigenous peoples against climate change (PILCCC), the Vice ministry of civil defense (VIDECI, SINAGER-SAT) and the, National meteorology and hydrology service (SENAMHI).
To make risk information easier to understand, Practical Action and Clear Global staff worked with communities to know what they understand by risk and how they use other concepts related. The Aymara and Tacana language and culture Institutes were part of this process to validate and support the first glossaries of disaster-risk terms in indigenous languages. These have been shared through flipcharts, primers, posters and radio messages, ensuring early warnings reach more people in clear, familiar terms.
The project has strengthened governance too, supporting indigenous authorities to lead local disaster planning in ways that reflect their own priorities, cultures and territorial needs. These approaches are now linked with municipal systems, helping shape long-term resilience across both nations.
The nearly £250,000 Indigenous inclusion for informed disaster risk reduction decision-making in Bolivia project is funded by Lloyd’s Register Foundation as part of its World Risk Poll into Action programme and is implemented by Practical Action, CLEAR Global and, The University of Edinburgh. This project is also contributing to the Climate Resilience Programme in Bolivia.