Plurinational State of Bolivia 2009 Constitution - Page 16 of 21

Table of Contents

TITLE II. ENVIRONMENT, NATURAL RESOURCES, LAND AND TERRITORY

CHAPTER I. Environment

Article 342

It is the duty of the State and the population to conserve, protect and use natural resources and the biodiversity in a sustainable manner, as well as to maintain the equilibrium of the environment.

Article 343

The population has the right to participate in environmental management, and to be consulted and informed prior to decisions that could affect the quality of the environment.

Article 344

The manufacture and use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons on Bolivian territory is prohibited, as well as the internment, transit and deposit of nuclear and toxic wastes.
The State shall regulate the internment, production, sale and employment of techniques, methods, supplies and substances that affect health and the environment.

Article 345

The policies of environmental management are based on the following:

Participatory planning and management, with public control.
The application of systems of evaluation of environmental impact and control of the quality of the environment, without exception and in a way that traverses all activity of production of goods and services that use, transform or affect natural resources and the environment.
Liability for the conducting of any activity that produces environmental harm; civil, criminal and administrative penalties for non compliance with the norms for the protection of the environment.

Article 346

The natural assets are of public importance and of strategic character for the sustainable development of the country. Their conservation and use for the benefit of the population shall be the responsibility and exclusive authority of the State, and sovereignty over natural resources may not be compromised. The law shall establish the principles and disposition for its management.

Article 347

The State and the society shall promote the mitigation of harmful effects on the environment and of the environmental contamination and damage that affect the country. Liability will be declared for damage to historic environments, and liability for environmental crimes shall not lapse.
Those who carry out activities that impact the environment must, at all stages of production, avoid, minimize, mitigate, remediate, repair and make compensation for the harms caused to the environment and the health of persons, and shall establish the security measures necessary to neutralize the possible effects of environmental contamination and damage.

CHAPTER II. Natural Resources

Article 348

Minerals in all of their states, the hydrocarbons, water, air, soil and the subsoil, the forests, the biodiversity, the electromagnetic spectrum and all the elements and physical forces capable of use, are considered natural resources.
The natural resources are of strategic character and of public importance for the development of the country.

Article 349

The natural resources are the property and direct domain, indivisible and without limitation, of the Bolivian people, and their administration corresponds to the State on behalf of the collective interest.
The State shall recognize, respect and grant individual and collective ownership rights to land, as well as the rights to use and enjoyment of natural resources.
Agriculture, livestock, as well as the activities of hunting and fishing that do not involve protected animal species, are activities that are governed by that which is established in Part Four of this Constitution related to the economic organization and structure of the State.

Article 350

Any title granted over fiscal reserves shall be null and void, except by express authorization for state necessity and public utility, in accordance with the law.

Article 351

The State, shall assume control and direction of the exploration, exploitation, industrialization, transport and sale of strategic natural resources through public, cooperative or community entities, which may in turn contract private enterprises and form mixed enterprises.
The State shall sign contracts of association with legal persons, Bolivian or foreign, for the use of natural resources. It must assure the reinvestment of economic profits in the country.
The management and administration of natural resources shall be carried out guaranteeing social participation and control in the design of the sector policies. Mixed enterprises may be established for the management and administration, with representation of the state and society, and the collective welfare shall be safeguarded.
Private enterprises, whether Bolivian or foreign, shall pay taxes and royalties when they take part in the exploitation of natural resources, and the payments that might be made shall not be reimbursable. The royalties for the use of natural resources are a right and a compensation for their exploitation, and they shall be regulated by the Constitution and the law.

Article 352

The exploitation of natural resources in a determined territory shall be subject to a process of consultation with the affected population, called by the State, which shall be free, prior in time and informed. Citizen participation is guaranteed in the process of the management of the environment, and the conservation of ecosystems shall be promoted, in accordance with the Constitution and the law. In the nations and rural native indigenous peoples, the consultation will be carried out with respect given to their own norms and procedures.

Article 353

The Bolivian people shall have equitable access to the benefits which come from the use of all the natural resources. Priority participation shall be assigned to the territories where these resources are found, and to the nations and rural native indigenous peoples.

Article 354

The State shall develop and promote research related to the management, conservation and use of natural resources and to biodiversity.

Article 355

The industrialization and sale of natural resources shall be a priority of the State.
The profits obtained from the exploitation and sale of the natural resources shall be distributed and reinvested to promote economic diversification in the different territorial levels of the State. The percentage of profits to be distributed shall be approved by the law.
The processes of industrialization shall be carried out with preference given to the place of origin of the production, and conditions shall be created which favor competitiveness in the internal and international market.

Article 356

The activities of exploration, exploitation refining, industrialization, transport and sale of nonrenewable natural resources shall have the character of state necessity and public utility.

Article 357

Since it is social property of the Bolivian people, no foreign person or enterprise, nor any private Bolivian person or enterprise, may register the property title to Bolivian natural resources in stock markets, nor can they use them as means for financial operations that grant title to or use them as security. The annotation and registry of reserves is the exclusive authority of the State.

Article 358

The rights to the use and exploitation of natural resources shall be subject to the Constitution and the law. These rights shall be subject to periodic review for compliance with the technical, economic and environmental regulations. The violation of the law shall lead to the reversion or nullification of the rights of use and exploitation.

CHAPTER III. Hydrocarbons

Article 359

The hydrocarbons, in whatever state they are found or form in which they are, are the inalienable and unlimited property of the Bolivian people. The State, on behalf of and in representation of the Bolivian people, is owner of the entire hydrocarbon production of the country and is the only one authorized to sell them. The totality of the income received by the sale of hydrocarbons shall be the property of the State.
No contract, agreement or convention, whether direct or indirect, tacit or express, may violate totally or partially that which is established in this article. In the event of violation, the contracts shall be null and void as a matter of law, and those who have agreed to, signed, approved or executed them, have committed the crime of treason.

Article 360

The state shall define the policy for hydrocarbons, shall promote their comprehensive, sustainable and equitable development, and shall guarantee energy sovereignty.

Article 361

Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) is a self-sufficient enterprise of pubic law, which cannot be subject to attachment, with autonomy of administrative, technical and economic management, within the framework of the state hydrocarbon policy. YPFB, under the legal protection of the Ministry of the branch and as the operative arm of the State, is the only one authorized to carry out activities in the productive chain of hydrocarbons and their sale.
YPFB may not transfer its rights or obligations in any form or modality, whether tacit or express, direct or indirectly.

Article 362

The YPFB is authorized to sign contracts for services with public, mixed or private enterprises, Bolivian or foreign, so that said enterprises, in their name and representation, carry out determined activities in the productive chain in exchange for compensation or payment for their services. In no case may the signing of these contracts signify losses for YPFB or the State.
The contracts referring to activities of exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons must have prior authorization and express approval of the Pluri-National Legislative Assembly. In the event this authorization is not obtained, they shall be null and void as a matter of law, without the necessity of a judicial or extra-judicial declaration.

Article 363

The Bolivian Enterprise of Hydrocarbon Industrialization (EBIH) is a self sufficient, public law enterprise, with autonomy in its administrative, technical and economic management, under the legal protection of the Ministry of the branch and the YPFB, which acts in the area of state hydrocarbon policy. EBIH, in representation of the State and within its territory, shall be responsible for carrying out the industrialization of the hydrocarbons.
YPFB may form associations or mixed economic enterprises for the execution of the activities of exploration, exploitation, refining, industrialization, transport and sale of hydrocarbons. In these associations and companies, YPBF must have a shareholder participation of no less than fifty one percent of the total capital of the company.

Article 364

YPFB, on behalf and in representation of the Bolivian State, shall operate and exercise property rights in the territories of other states.

Article 365

A self-sufficient institution of public law, with autonomy in its administrative, technical and economic management, under the legal protection of the Ministry of the branch, it shall be responsible for the regulations, control, supervision and fiscal control of the activities of the entire productive chain up to industrialization, within the framework of the state hydrocarbon policy, in accordance with the law.

Article 366

Every foreign enterprise that carries out activities in the chain of production of hydrocarbons in name and representation of the State shall submit to the sovereignty of the State, and to the laws and authority of the State. No foreign court case or foreign jurisdiction shall be recognized, and they may not invoke any exceptional situation for international arbitration, nor appeal to diplomatic claims.

Article 367

The exploitation, consumption and sale of hydrocarbons and its derivatives must be subjected to a policy of development that guarantees internal consumption. The exportation of the excess production shall incorporate the greatest quantity of value added possible.

Article 368

The departments that are producers of hydrocarbons shall receive a royalty of eleven percent of their audited departmental production of hydrocarbons. Similarly, the non producer departments of hydrocarbons and the General Treasury of the State shall obtain a participation in the percentages, which shall be fixed by a special law.

CHAPTER IV. Mining and Metalurgy

Article 369

The State shall be responsible for the mineralogical riches that are found in the soil and subsoil, whatever may be their origin, and their application shall be regulated by law. The private mining industry and cooperative companies shall be recognized as productive actors of the state mining industry.
The non metallic natural resources existing in the salts, brines, evaporations, sulfurs and others substances are of strategic character for the country.
The direction of the mining and metallurgy policy is the responsibility of the State, as well as the stimulation, promotion and control of mining activity.
The State shall exercise control of and audit the entire productive chain of mining and of the activities developed by the owners of mining rights, mining contracts or pre-existing rights.

Article 370

The State shall grant mining rights in the entire chain of production, and it shall sign mining contracts with individual and collective persons upon prior compliance with the norms established in the law.
The State shall promote and strengthen cooperative mines so that they contribute to the social economic development of the country.
The mining rights in the entire chain of production as well as mining contracts must fulfill a social economic function, carried out directly by their owners.
Mining rights, which include investments and prospecting, exploration, exploitation, concentration, industrialization or sale of minerals and metals, are controlled by the owners. The law shall define the extent of this right.
The mining contract shall obligate the beneficiaries to develop mining activities to satisfy the social economic interest. The failure to fulfill this obligation shall lead to the immediate dissolution of the contract.
The State, through self-sufficient entities, shall promote and develop policies for the administration, prospecting, exploration, exploitation, industrialization, commercialization, and for technical, geological and scientific information and evaluation of non-renewable natural resources for mining development.

Article 371

The areas of mining exploitation granted by contract are not transferable, not attachable, and cannot pass by hereditary succession.
The legal domicile of the mining enterprises shall be established in the local jurisdiction where the greatest amount of mining exploitation is carried out.

Article 372

The nationalized mining groups, their industrial plants and their foundries are the property of the people, which cannot be transferred or adjudicated as property of private enterprises pursuant to any title.
The high level direction and administration of the mining industry shall be entrusted to a self sufficient entity with the attributes that are determined by the law.
The State shall participate in the industrialization and sale of mineralogical, metallic and non metallic resources, as regulated by law.
The new self-sufficient enterprises created by the State shall establish their legal domicile in the departments of greatest mining production, Potosi and Oruro.

CHAPTER V. Water Resources

Article 373

Water constitutes a fundamental right for life, within the framework of the sovereignty of the people. The State shall promote the use and access to water on the basis of principles of solidarity, complementariness, reciprocity, equity, diversity and sustainability.
Water resources in all their states, surface and subterraneous, constitute finite, vulnerable, strategic resources, and serve a social, cultural and environmental function. These resource cannot be the object of private appropriation and they, as well as water services, shall not be given as concessions and are subject to a system of licensing, registration and authorization pursuant to the law.

Article 374

The State shall protect and guarantee the priority use of water for life. It is the duty of the State to manage, regulate, protect and plan the adequate and sustainable use of water resources, with social participation, guaranteeing access to water for all the habitants. The law shall establish the conditions and limitations of all the uses.
The State shall recognize, respect and protect the uses and customs of the community, of its local authorities and the rural native indigenous organizations over the right, management and administration of sustainable water.
The fossil, glacial, wetland, subterraneous, mineral, medicinal and other waters are priorities for the State, which must guarantee its conservation, protection, preservation, restoration, sustainable use and complete management; they are inalienable, not attachable and cannot be limited.

Article 375

It is the duty of the State to develop plans for the use, conservation, management and sustainable exploitation of the river basins.
The State shall regulate the management and sustainable administration of the water resources and the basins for irrigation, food security and basic services, respecting the uses and customs of the communities.
It is the duty of the State to carry out the studies for the identification of fossil waters and their consequent protection, management and sustainable administration.

Article 376

Water resources of the rivers, lakes and lagoons that form the water basins are considered strategic resources for the development and sovereignty of Bolivia because of their potential, for the variety of natural resources that they contain, and because they are a fundamental part of the ecosystems. The State shall avoid actions in the sources and intermediary zones of rivers that may cause damages to the ecosystems or diminish the flow volume, shall preserve the natural state, and shall watch over the development and welfare of the population.

Article 377

Every international treaty on water resources that the State signs shall guarantee the sovereignty of the country and shall prioritize the interest of the State.
The State shall safeguard permanently the border and trans border waters for the conservation of the water riches that contribute to the integration of peoples.

CHAPTER VI. Energy

Article 378

The different forms of energy and their sources constitute a strategic resource; access to them is a fundamental and essential right for full development and the social development of the country; and they shall be governed by the principles of efficiency, continuity, adaptability, and environmental preservation.
It is the exclusive authority of the State to develop the chain of energy production in the phases of generation, transport, and distribution, by means of public, mixed enterprises, non profit institutions, cooperatives, private enterprises, and community and social enterprises, with public participation and control. The chain of energy production may not be held exclusively by private interests, nor may it be licensed. Private participation shall be regulated by law.

Article 379

The State shall develop and promote research, as well as the use of new forms of the production of alternative energy, compatible with the conservation of the environment.
The State shall guarantee the generation of energy for internal consumption; the export of excess energy must anticipate the reserves necessary for the country.

CHAPTER VII. Biodiversity, Coca, Protected Areas and Forest Resources

Section I. Biodiversity

Article 380

The renewable natural resources shall be exploited in a sustainable way, respecting the characteristics and natural value of each ecosystem.
In order to guarantee ecological equilibrium, the land must be used in accordance with its capacity for greater use within the framework of the process of the organization of use and occupation of lands, taking into account their biophysical, socioeconomic, cultural characteristics, and institutional policies.

Article 381

Native animal and vegetable species are natural assets. The State shall establish the measures necessary for their conservation, exploitation and development.
The State shall protect all genetic and micro-organic resources, which are found in the ecosystems of the territory, as well as the knowledge associated with their use and exploitation. For their protection, a system of registry that safeguards their existence shall be established, as well as a registry of the intellectual property in the name of the State or the local individuals who claim it. The State shall establish procedures for protection under the law of all those resources that are not registered.

Article 382

The State has the authority and duty to defend, recover, protect and repatriate biological material derived from natural resources, from ancestral knowledge and other sources that originate within the territory.

Article 383

The State shall establish measures for the partial or total, temporary or permanent, restriction of the uses of extracts from the resources of biodiversity. The measures shall be directed toward the need to preserve, conserve, recover and restore the biodiversity at risk of extinction. Illegal possession, handling and trafficking of species of biodiversity shall be criminally punished.

Section II. Coca

Article 384

The State protects the native and ancestral coca as cultural patrimony, as a renewable natural resource of the biodiversity of Bolivia, and as a factor of social unity. In its natural state coca is not a narcotic. The revaluation, production, sale and industrialization of coca shall be governed by law.

Section III. Protected Areas

Article 385

The protected areas constitute a common good, and they form part of the natural and cultural patrimony of the country. They perform environmental, cultural, social and economic functions for sustainable development.
Wherever rural native indigenous protected areas and territories are recovered, shared management shall be undertaken, subject to the norms and procedures of the rural native indigenous nations and peoples, and respecting the goal of creating these areas.

Section IV. Forest Resources

Article 386

The natural forests and woodlands are strategic for the development of the Bolivian people. The State shall recognize the rights to exploit the forests for the benefit of communities and individual traders. In addition, it shall promote activities of conservation and sustainable exploitation, the generation of added value to its products, and the rehabilitation and reforestation of degraded areas.

Article 387

The State shall guarantee the conservation of natural forests in the areas of native forests, their sustainable exploitation, and the conservation and recovery of the flora, fauna, and degraded areas.
The law shall regulate the protection and exploitation of the species of trees that have socioeconomic, social and ecological importance.

Article 388

The rural native indigenous communities located within forest areas shall have the exclusive right to their exploitation and their management, in accordance with the law.

Article 389

The conversion of tree-covered land to agricultural and other uses, shall only be carried out in areas legally allocated for that use, in accordance with the planning policies and in accordance with the law.
The law shall determine the ecological rights of way and zoning for internal uses in order to guarantee the long term conservation of the land and bodies of water.
Every conversion of land in areas not classified for such purposes shall constitute a punishable infraction and shall give rise to the obligation to repair the damages caused.

CHAPTER VIII. Amazonia

Article 390

Because of its high environmental sensitivity, existing biodiversity, water resources and for the eco-regions, the Bolivian Amazonia basin constitutes a strategic area of special protection for the comprehensive development of the country.
The Bolivian Amazonia includes the entire Department of Pando, Iturralde Province of the Department of La Paz and the provinces of Vaca Diez and Ballivan of the Department of Beni. The full development of the Bolivian Amazonia, as a territorial area of tropical rain forests, in accordance with the specific characteristics of the extract and harvesting resources, shall be governed by a special law in benefit of the region and the country.

Article 391

The State shall prioritize the sustainable, integral development of the Bolivian Amazonia, through a comprehensive, participatory, shared and equitable administration of the Amazon jungle. The administration shall be directed to the generation of employment and the improvement of the income of its inhabitants, within the framework of protection and sustainability of the environment.
The State shall encourage access to financing for tourism, eco-tourism and other initiatives of regional enterprise.
The State, in coordination with the rural native indigenous authorities and the inhabitants of the Amazonia, shall create a special, decentralized organ, with headquarters in the Amazonia, to promote its own activities in the region.

Article 392

The State shall implement special policies to benefit the rural native indigenous nations and peoples of the region in order to generate the necessary conditions for the reactivation, encouragement, industrialization, commercialization, protection and conservation of traditional extract products.
The historical cultural and economic value of the siringa and the castano, symbols of the Bolivian Amazonia, is recognized, and cutting them down shall be punished, except in cases of public interest as regulated by the law.

CHAPTER IX. Land and Territory

Article 393

The State recognizes, protects and guarantees individual and communitarian or collective property of land, as long as it fulfills a social purpose or social economic purposes, as the case may be.

Article 394

Individual agrarian property is classified as small, medium and business, according to the surface area, the production, and the development criteria. Its maximum and minimum dimensions, characteristics and forms of conversion shall be regulated by law. Legally acquired rights by individual owners, whose piece of land is inside rural native indigenous territories, are guaranteed.
The small property is indivisible; it constitutes a family asset that cannot be attached, and it is not subject to agrarian property taxes. The indivisibility does not affect the right of hereditary succession under conditions established by law.
The State recognizes, protects and guarantees communitarian or collective property, which includes rural native indigenous territory, native, intercultural communities and rural communities. Collective property is indivisible, may not be subject to prescription or attachment, is inalienable and irreversible, and it is not subject to agrarian property taxes. Communities can be owners, recognizing the complementary character of collective and individual rights, respecting the territorial unity in common.

Article 395

The lands that are taken over shall be given to rural native indigenous peoples, intercultural indigenous communities, Afro-Bolivian and rural communities, which do not possess them or have insufficient lands, in accordance with state policy concerned with the ecological and geographic realities, as well as the population, social, cultural and economic necessities. The endowment shall be carried out according to the policies of sustainable rural development and the right of women to access, distribution and redistribution of land, without discrimination based on civil status or marital union.
Double endowment, the purchase and sale, and exchange and donation of lands delivered by endowment are prohibited.
Since it is contrary to the collective interest, the obtaining of income generated by the speculative use of the land is prohibited.

Article 396

The State shall regulate the land market, preventing the accumulation of surface areas greater than that recognized by law, as well as its division into surfaces areas less than that established for small property.
Foreigners may not acquire lands of the State under any title whatsoever.

Article 397

Work is the fundamental means by which agrarian property is acquired and maintained. Properties must be used to serve a social purpose or a social economic purpose in order to safeguard the right to them, depending on the nature of the property.
Social purpose shall be understood to mean the sustainable exploitation of the land by peoples and rural native indigenous communities, as well as that carried out in small properties, and it constitutes the source of subsistence and welfare and socio-cultural development of its owners. The norms of the communities are recognized in the fulfillment of social purpose.
The social economic purpose must be understood as the sustainable use of the land in the development of productive activities, in accordance with its capacity for extended use, for the benefit of the society, the collective interest and its owner. The corporate property is subject to review in accordance with the statute, to verify the compliance with the social economic purpose.

Article 398

Latifundio and double title are prohibited because they are contrary to the collective interest and development of the country. Latifundio is understood to mean the non-productive holding of land; the land that does not fulfill a social economic function; the exploitation of land that applies a system of servitude, quasi-slavery and slavery in labor relations; or the property that surpasses the maximum surface area established in the law. In no case may the maximum surface exceed five thousand hectares.

Article 399

The new limits of zoned agrarian property shall be applied to pieces of land that have been acquired after this Constitution enters into force. For purposes of the non retroactivity of the law, the rights of possession and agrarian property are recognized and respected in accordance with the law.
The surface areas exceeding those that fulfill the Social Economic Function shall be expropriated. The double title set forth in the prior article refers to the double endowments processed before the ex-National Council of Agrarian Reform, CNRA. The prohibition of double endowment is not applied to legally acquired rights of third parties.

Article 400

Because it affects sustainable exploitation and is contrary to the collective interest, the division of land into areas less than the maximum area of small property as recognized in the law is prohibited. The maximum area for small property established by law shall take into account the characteristics of the geographic zone.

Article 401

The failure to fulfill the social economic function or the holding of latifundio shall result in the reversion of the land, and the land shall pass into the domain and property of the Bolivian people.
The expropriation of land shall occur for reasons of necessity and public utility and upon prior payment of fair indemnification.

Article 402

The State has the obligation to:

Encourage plans for human settlement to achieve rational demographic distribution and better exploitation of the land and natural resources, granting to new settlements the facilities to have access to education, health, food security and production, within the framework of the Territorial Organization of the State and the conservation of the environment.
To promote policies aimed at eliminating all forms of discrimination against women in the access to, ownership and inheritance of land.

Article 403

The integrity of rural native indigenous territory is recognized, which includes the right to land, to the use and exclusive exploitation of the renewable natural resources under conditions determined by law, to prior and informed consultation, to participation in the benefits of the exploitation of the non-renewable natural resources that are found in their territory, to the authority to apply their own norms, administered by their structures of representation, and to define their development pursuant to their own cultural criteria and principles of harmonious coexistence with nature. The rural native indigenous territories may be composed of communities.
The rural native indigenous territory includes areas of production, areas of exploitation and conservation of natural resources, and spaces for social, spiritual and cultural reproduction. The law shall establish the procedure for recognition of these rights.

Article 404

The Bolivian Agrarian Reform Service (Servicio Boliviano de Reforma Agraria), the maximum authority of which is the President of the State, is the entity responsible for planning, executing and consolidating the agrarian reform process, and it has jurisdiction in the entire territory of the country.