Resource sovereignties in Bolivia: re-conceptualising the relationship between indigenous identities and the environment during the TIPNIS conflict

This paper examines the active re-construction of indigenous identities within the Plurinational State of Bolivia through the case study of a resource conflict that arose with the government’s announcement of its intention to build a road through a national park and indigenous territory, the Territorio Indígena y Parque Nacional Isiboro Sécure (TIPNIS; Indigenous Territory and Isiboro Sécure National Park). Ethnographic fieldwork shows that both the state and the lowland indigenous movement have fashioned essentialised understandings of an indigenous identity linked to the environment in order to legitimise competing resource sovereignty claims

Reproductive biology of Zearaja chilensis (Chondrichthyes: Rajidae) in the south-east Pacific Ocean

Between 2000 and 2002, three artisanal landing sites were sampled in southern Chile, with data on population structure and reproductive development collected from 5477 yellownose skates Zearaja chilensis. Total length (LT) ranged from 33 to 158 cm for females and 34 to 155 cm for males. No sexual dimorphism was evident in disc size (length or width) or in LT mass relationships. The smallest mature female was 95 cm LT and the size at which 50% were mature (LT50) was 109 cm. Males matured between 80 and 90 cm LT with a LT50 of 88 cm. Although the largest Z. chilensis captured by the artisanal fishery was 155 cm LT, 89% of landings comprised relatively small, immature fish. This situation may compromise the stock integrity if intrinsic vulnerability and probable long-life span of Z. chilensis are considered. Consequences for the survival of the species and possible signs of a fishery collapse must be reviewed by management authorities by consideration of both artisanal and industrial landings in Chile