Social
Plan de Vida (Life Plan)
Definition
A Plan de Vida (life plan) is a collective planning instrument adopted by Indigenous peoples — notably in Colombia, Peru and Ecuador — in which a community defines its own political, economic, social, cultural and environmental priorities rooted in its worldview, in deliberate contrast to conventional state development plans. Plans are co-created through community assemblies and may include written texts, maps, drawings and oral narratives.
References
Definition, co-creation process, Buen Vivir link, AIDESEP planning guide citation
Late-1980s origins, cabildo-based ethno-development planning
Overview
What it means
Emerging from Indigenous organising in the Andean-Amazon region from the late 1980s, life plans operationalise concepts such as Buen Vivir (living well): development understood as harmonious relationships within community and with Pachamama rather than linear material growth.
They express the "Law of Origin" — ancestral knowledge for managing the material and spiritual world — and serve as mandates for territorial governance, resource protection and negotiation with states, NGOs and companies. Organisations such as the Amazon Conservation Team use life plans as the starting point for long-term territorial programmes.
How it is used
Communities use life plans to guide self-governance, land defence and project selection; governments and funders increasingly reference them in consultation, conservation and territorial-management agreements.
Why it matters
Life plans are a leading instrument of Indigenous self-determination and a practical model of pluriversal, community-defined sustainability.