Indigenous Environmental Autonomy and the issue of Extractivist Development - A Comparative Case Study of Bolivia and Sweden

Sammanfattning: In this global ‘age of autonomy’ this thesis will discuss the relation between indigenous peoples autonomy, their political agency and the national environmental agenda in the Plurinational State of Bolivia and in Sweden. With decolonial critique of development the cases will be analysed looking at factors such as indigenous rights policy, resource management, conservation agendas and the structure of autonomy. The research questions that will be asked are, to what extent do indigenous peoples have the political agency to participate in the environment agenda in the Plurinational State of Bolivia and Sweden? How is this political agency put into practice? And, what are the implications for indigenous autonomy? By doing this comparative case study and asking these questions this thesis will argue, that by introducing a radical form of environmental autonomy, indigenous peoples in Bolivia and Sweden will gain political agency to create an environmental agenda that is based on their ontologies and notions of development. Something that is their collective right as indigenous peoples in theory - and should be in practice.