Presentation short abstract

Marañon River was recognised as rights holder in 2024. Its ruling established that both the indigenous riverine organisations and the Peruvian State will be its guardians and defenders. This process is a political milestone and a cultural challenge.

Presentation long abstract

This communication reflects on the context in which civil society organised to request and obtain the recognition of the Marañón River and its tributaries as legal subjects from a court in Nauta (Peru) on 8 March 2024. In this ruling, it is established that both the indigenous riverine organisations and the Peruvian State will be its guardians, defenders and representatives, and that they will organise themselves into a Basin Committee. While this process is a political milestone, it is also a cultural challenge.

Since the beginning of the century, the Kukama people have achieved remarkable visibility and political agency, which contrasts with their strategic invisibility a few decades ago. Organisations such as ACODECOSPAT, Huaynakana, the Catholic Vicariate and Radio Ucamara, along with other international organisations, have articulated territorial and identity claims in an international context that, on the one hand, was advancing in terms of indigenous and nature rights, but on the other, extractivism and corruption make their existence difficult. The communication seeks to reflect on the scenario opened up by the recognition of the Marañón River and its tributaries as subjects of rights in a context marked by power relations and conflicts between indigenous organisations and the state, by corruption and “developmentalist” ideology. The proposal of nature's rights aligns with conservationism and the ecocentric turn in law, but it presents limitations for both environmental conservation and the co-governance of rivers and indigenous territories.