Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari

In March 2024, Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari and Asociación de Mujeres Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana—a Kukama women’s association for which she serves as president—won a landmark rights of nature court decision to protect the Marañón River in Peru. For the first time in the country’s history, a river was granted legal personhood—with the right to be free-flowing and free of contamination. After finding the Peruvian government in violation of the river’s inherent rights, the court ordered the government to take immediate action to prevent future oil spills into the river, mandated the creation of a basin-wide protection plan, and recognized the Kukama as stewards of the river.

A Mighty Waterway

Traveling more than 1,000 miles, from the Nevado de Yapura glacier in the Andes mountains in Peru through valleys and forests and eventually into the Ucayali River to form the Amazon River, the Marañón River is an outsize presence that shapes an 89-million-acres basin.  

The Marañón River and its tributaries are the lifeblood of Peru’s tropical rainforests and support 75% of the country’s tropical wetlands. It is home to pink dolphins, giant river otters, manatees, black caimans, and 156 fish species. The forests in the river basin support thousands of plant species and are habitat for the critically endangered Peruvian yellow-tailed woolly monkey, jaguars, and spectacled bears. 

Along with supporting globally important biodiversity, the Marañón River flows through lands containing some of Peru’s largest oil and gas reserves. In the 1970s, the Peruvian government began to grant drilling concessions in the region, resulting in the construction of the massive Northern Peruvian Pipeline along the river to coastal cities and ports. The new industry profoundly altered the landscape along the river—and with it, the ecosystems, livelihoods, and health of river communities.  

By 2014, the region represented 40% of Peru’s oil production—and the effects have been devastating. Since 1997, there have been more than 60 oil spills along the Marañón River, some of them catastrophic. In addition to the effects on wildlife and local livelihoods, health problems proliferated; a 2021 study revealed elevated levels of lead, mercury, arsenic, and cadmium in the blood of river community members.  

In 2010, the Peruvian government announced a plan to build 20 hydroelectric projects along the Marañón River. As of 2024, one has been constructed and two additional projects have been approved. 

A Friend of the River

Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari, 56, is a Kukama woman who grew up in Shapajilla, a community on the banks of the Marañón River. The river is sacred to the Kukama people, who believe that their ancestors reside on the river floor.  

The Kukama people are among dozens of Indigenous groups living along the Marañón River, serving as traditional stewards of the sacred river and its rainforests. They depend on the river for transport, agriculture, water, and fishing. Their primary diet is fish extracted from the river. As such, river communities are especially vulnerable to water contamination—and, for years, locals have suffered from fevers, diarrhea, skin rashes, and miscarriages following oil spills. 

After a major oil spill on the river in 2000, Mari Luz represented the community with other leaders and observed that there were very few visible women. In 2001, motivated to address the ongoing oil spills threatening the river, and the lack of leadership opportunities for women, Mari Luz founded Asociación de Mujeres Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana (“Hard-working Women’s Association” or “HKK”), a Kukama women’s association addressing social, economic, and environmental challenges.

An Ecosystem At-risk

In 2010, nearly 400 barrels of oil fell off a barge near the port of Saramuro, spilling thousands of gallons of crude oil into the Marañón River. The damage from the incident was catastrophic, causing a massive fish die-off and severe health problems for the Kukama, who had no other option than to consume contaminated river water. Despite suffering from fevers and skin rashes after the incident, Mari Luz stepped in to lodge a formal complaint with regional authorities—and demand a response. 

As the volunteer president of HKK, Mari Luz had been working on environmental issues as well as promoting female leadership. Following the Saramuro spill, she positioned HKK as a key actor on environmental issues and assumed the role of spokesperson for the community. 

When the Peruvian government announced a river dredging project in 2014, Mari Luz connected with the Legal Defense Institute—a Peruvian NGO—and began to explore legal strategies for protecting the Marañón River. HKK sued the government to stop the project due to the absence of consultation with local communities. Ultimately successful in stopping the dredging project, the experience educated Mari Luz about the environmental consultation process—and the Peruvian legal system’s lack of recognition of Indigenous stewardship of natural resources like forests and rivers.

By 2020, HKK had grown to include 29 Kukama communities, helping to position the association to formally act in defense of the river.  

Around the same period, successful rights of nature cases granting legal personhood to rivers in New Zealand and Colombia opened the door for Mari Luz’ vision to become reality. In September 2021, HKK, with the support of the Legal Defense Institute, International Rivers, and Earth Law Center, filed a lawsuit seeking recognition of the legal personhood of the Marañón River to protect it from oil spills and other forms of destruction. 

During the legal proceedings, Mari Luz became the public face of the case. With HKK, she organized community meetings, spoke at press conferences, and was among a handful of Kukama women who testified in court. While the case progressed, multiple new oil spills on the Marañón and Amazon rivers drew greater attention to the issue. In response to the spills, HKK led protest marches in Iquitos—the provincial capital—and drew significant media coverage, increasing pressure on the government to act against the ongoing contamination. 

In March 2024, after more than two years of litigation, the federal court ruled in favor of the Kukama and the Marañón River. The historic decision recognized the river’s intrinsic value and inherent right to be free of environmental contamination and remain free flowing. This was the first river to be granted legal rights in Peru. The court found the Peruvian government—and its state-run oil company, Petroperú—to be in violation of those rights, ordering authorities to immediately address the oil spills and create a protection plan for the river and its tributaries. The decision provides an unprecedented level of legal protection for the river and enables the Kukama and other Indigenous groups to be active stakeholders in the conservation of the river.  

HKK’s victory represents a potential sea change in the protection of not only the Marañón but all rivers and ecosystems in Peru. Other Indigenous communities have since filed similar cases to protect other rivers throughout Peru. Outside of Peru, the case gained substantial media attention and builds momentum for the rights of nature movement across Latin America. Today, Mari Luz and HKK are supporting the creation of a river protection plan.

Profile Film: Additional footage courtesy of Quisca/Radio Ucamara