Sistemas de información geográfica aplicados a la consulta previa en Bolivia

Abstract

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are currently used in a wide variety of work with human groups, with Prior Consultation – in mining matters – being one of the tasks that requires the most precision and detail, given the sensitivity of the topic among the Indigenous Originary Peasant Nations and Peoples of Bolivia. This document constitutes an example of the application, in a hypothetical case, of GIS, with the objective of presenting the procedure tested and successfully applied in sociocultural information collection procedures between 2019 and 2020, to help improve the Prior Consultation process at the stage of Identification of Subjects of Consultation for mining projects, in any country that requires it. The procedure explained refers to the pre-processing of information in the office (for which it is necessary to have open sources of geospatial information), obtaining data in the field (using tools and applications designed for smart devices) and post-processing of generated information (through the application of vector analysis in GIS programs), to determine the impacts that allow identifying and profiling the subjects of consultation, understood as the populations that have collective rights to protect.