Resource Sovereignties in B olivia: 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 P lurinational S tate of B olivia 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 T erritorio I ndígena y P arque N acional I siboro S écure ( TIPNIS ; I ndigenous T erritory and I siboro S écure N ational P ark). 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.