Rooted rights systems in turbulent waters: the dynamics of collective fishing rights in La Albufera, Valencia, Spain

Valencia's Albufera Lake is a wetlands area where different sociolegal systems interact. Its El Palmar community is governed by customary laws for fishing and territorial control. These exist alongside, yet in tension with, governmental laws. This article examines the dynamics of fishing rights, focusing particularly on the conflict between the desire to practice autonomous management and the incursion of outside authorities and third parties seeking to question these arrangements. Hereby, competition between multiple authorities, users, and even nonusers occurs in different arenas, characterized by conflicting normative frameworks. The article analyzes how the fishing community has defended its rooted, customary rights to regulate the Albufera Lake fisheries, against internal and external coalitions and influences that have threatened its structure and collective and individual rights. Their demands are, however, difficult to meet in an unequal power geography, especially since the community has authority over fishing management but not over the lake's water regime.