River Guardians: from Colombia to Ireland

Banner image: speakers at the Tailors' Hall event from left to right; representing Save Our Sperrins, Cormac McAleer and Fidelma O'Kane (Ireland), Guardians of the Atrato River, Bernadino Mosquera, Elaine McGoff, An Taisce, Viviana González Moreno, SIEMBRA (Colombia), Alexander Rodríguez Mena, Guardians of the Atrato River, Rodrigo Rogelis SIEMBRA (Colombia) and the panel was chaired by broadcaster, author and ecologist Anja Murray.

By Lynda Sullivan, An Taisce's Mineral Extraction Policy Officer 

On a sunny evening in late May, the iconic Tailor’s Hall in Dublin was filled with listening ears as we gathered to hear from Colombian and Irish River Guardians, and how the concept that a river has rights could be used as the unifying idea behind their efforts to protect our waters.  

Two officially appointed Guardians of the Atrato River, in the Chocó region of Colombia, territory of Afro-Colombian traditional communities and one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, had travelled to Ireland to share their story and exchange ideas with those seeking to protect Irish waters. The Atrato River seen above and some of the River Guardians from Colombia are below (photos courtesy: SIEMBRA/Cuerpo Colegiado de Guardianes Del Atrato).

Bernardino Mosquera and Alexander Rodríguez Mena (see bios below), were appointed River Guardians on the back of a landmark ruling that confirmed that the Atrato River is in itself a rights-bearing entity, and should not only be protected, but restored and revived. The river, and the territory through which it flows, have suffered badly in the face of destructive development such as illegal gold mining and logging. 

The consequences of gold mining were of particular interest to our other speakers from the Sperrin Mountains, County Tyrone, who have been campaigning for over a decade now to stop a proposed gold mine (which would be the largest in Europe) by the Canadian corporation Dalradian Gold. Fidelma O’Kane and Cormac McAleer, from Save Our Sperrins, also hold faith in the idea of recognising nature’s rights, as a way to protect the Sperrins not only from this gold mine, but from all those that would roll in behind. They don’t want their grandchildren to have to take up this fight. 

Accompanying the two Colombian River Guardians were two legal advisors from SIEMBRA - Rodrigo Rogelis and Viviana González Moreno, who have been accompanying the communities along the Atrato River in their territorial defence processes, which includes progressing the implementation and necessary action stemming from the Rights of Nature ruling T-622.  

Colombia’s neighbour, Ecuador, was the first country to embed the Rights of Mother Earth, the Pachamama, in its constitution in 2008, however local Rights of Nature ‘Bills of Rights’ had been emerging from communities in the United States since 2006. The lawyers behind these first emergings (Thomas Linzey and Mari Margil, CDER) visited Ireland in 2018, and lit a spark that has spread across the island over the past seven years.  

Starting in the Northwest, and thanks to communities involved in environmental justice campaigns to halt mining, industrial agriculture and other nature harming practices,  five Councils passed Rights of Nature motions, including Donegal County Council, Derry City and Strabane, and Fermanagh and Omagh – all territories facing mining threats. Then the Citizens Assembly on Biodiversity Loss recommended to the Dail that both the right to a healthy environment and the rights of nature be incorporated into the Irish constitution. Watch this film on the movement that is sweeping the island.  

However, the spark was then dampened by local and national government inaction. The Councils stopped at passing motions and the Irish state received the recommendations and did no more. Communities were left to ask themselves: how then can this paradigm shifting take root? How can it bear fruit? The answers seemed elusive. 

Our River Guardians from Colombia, on the other hand, now have an action plan to restore the Atrato and designated funding to put it into action. The plan was created via participative decision-making from the communities who live along her, and whose culture is intricately intertwined. And all this on the back of their Rights from the ruling T-622. So how did they do it? 

Well, for a start they don’t pretend it was easy, or immediate. It’s taken nine years to get to the plan and its funding, and the road ahead will also be fraught – ensuring that the plan is implemented. There are many organs of the state that need to change in order for the Atrato to be healthy – the licencing regime, the criminal justice system, the decision making processes. But what the Rights of Nature ruling did was to provide a unifying idea, an anchor around which to organise a response. They can now advocate for these changes on many fronts, under the same Rights of Nature banner.  

Rodrigo from SIEMBRA explains how they needed to work out what the river needs to thrive, to be restored back to health – what changes needed to occur, and then tie these into the ruling. For Rights of Nature to become a reality, to have teeth, it needs to be able to make the solutions happen. So it cannot stay in the abstract, it can’t be symbolic, or it will become meaningless.  

He also said that sometimes Rights of Nature may not be the answer. It is only the answer if it addresses the problem. This will be key for communities in Ireland who are attracted to the concept – who see it’s potential for the systemic change we need to realign our priorities. Waves are in motion to use the Rights of Nature to address the crisis of Lough Neagh, for example, the island’s biggest freshwater lake that chokes in blue-green algae every year. But any proposal needs to address the pollution from industrial agriculture, the sand mining of the lough’s bed, the continued ownership by a colonial landlord.  

Industrial agriculture has also led to algal blooms in other bodies of water across the island- such as in Lady's Island Lake in Wexford. It's one of Ireland's largest lagoons and both a Special Protection Area and a Special Area of Conservation. Large blooms block out light and this can lead to plants and animals dying. An Taisce have taken the government to court for failing to adequately protect water quality from agricultural pollution. This case was referred to the European Court of Justice and a ruling is anticipated in a few months. Could Rights of Nature also play a role here? 

RON also needs to involve the waterbodies’ communities in more than a tokenistic way. Bernadino and Alexander spoke of their pride in being River Guardians. They told us how important it was that the riverine communities were involved in the participatory decision making on the future of the river – because it’s their future too. It was also important to get the recognition from the government that they understand this – the interdependency. And that to fully recognise their biocultural rights they need sovereignty over their territory. This is perhaps where the ruling had the most impact – because the communities who depend on the river know how to live in harmony with her. It was the government who needed the judgement.  

It’s not the end of the story, however, the Atrato River Guardians still haven’t solved the problem of the very organised and violent criminal gang network that operates the mining, logging and drug trafficking. But they do have a plan, and they have the power to enact it.  

Could the Rights of Nature be a useful framework for us in Ireland? Would our waters breathe and flow easier? The answer is not straightforward, and Rights of Nature is not a silver bullet,  but given the state of our waters, they need something to shift us from our current trajectory.  

To find out more about the Atrato River Guardians – see here. 

And follow Save Our Sperrins on Facebook or Instagram for updates on their campaign.  

Follow also An Taisce, and keep an eye out for updates on our own legal battle – as we take the government to court for failing to protect our waters from agricultural pollution.  You can also read more about our work on taking the State to Europe over Nitrates and the engagement and submissions on the Nitrates Action Programme. 

Thanks again to our co-hosts ABColombia, the Irish Coalition for Business and Human Rights and Financial Justice Ireland. 

Read more about our Speakers: 

Bernardino Mosquera: Community leader and Guardian of the Atrato River has represented the communities of Río Quito since 2017. He served two consecutive terms as a councillor for the municipality of Río Quito, which belongs to the Paimadó Community Council, and is the legal representative of the Nuestra Casa Común Association, which seeks to improve the living conditions of the municipality's residents and the surrounding area.  

Alexander Rodríguez Mena: From Campo Alegre, Tangui River, Chocó. Community leader dedicated to working for organisational causes, member of the COCOMACIA Community Council. He is a lawyer by profession and was appointed by his organisation as Guardian of the Atrato River following the Colombian Constitutional Court Ruling T-622 of 2016. 

Rodrigo Rogelis: Political scientist and philosopher with a Master’s degree in Political Science. He is a researcher and deputy director of the SIEMBRA Socio-Legal Centre, specialising in environmental conflicts, criminal economies, armed conflict, and public policy monitoring. He has been supporting organisational processes in Chocó and Tolima for over five years. 

Viviana González Moreno: Lawyer, Master's in Law and Environmental Management. She has been supporting ethnic and peasant organisations in the department of Chocó for 10 years in their territorial defence processes, including the implementation of ruling T-622, which recognises the Atrato River as a subject of rights. She is the Deputy Director of the SIEMBRA Socio-Legal Centre.  

Mo Hume: (acting as translator) Professor of Latin American Politics (Political & International Studies) in the University of Glasgow. Her research focuses on how multiple and overlapping forms of violence are perceived by those who live in (post) conflict contexts. More recent research, funded through the ESRC-Newton Caldas project  Colombia River Stories: improving socio-enviromental understandings for building sustainable peace, focuses on struggles for socio-enviromental rights along the Atrato River in Colombia. This project brings together a multi-disciplinary team of researchers to explore the effects of mechanised gold mining and its intersections with conflict.

Save Our Sperrins 

Community members from the Sperrin Mountains have been resisting a mega gold mine for over a decade. Over fifty thousand people signed objections to what has been the biggest planning application ever to be submitted in the North of Ireland. A Public Inquiry is currently taking place and the population of the entire island was recently consulted due to the transboundary implications of the project to the health of the water, land and air across the north west and further afield.

The project also has wider implications in terms of the embedding of an extractive economy on the island – with 25% of the land of the North, and between 20% and 25% of the South being already concessioned to mining corporations, this project is seen as a gateway for the ramping up of extraction. The tireless campaigning of Save Our Sperrins, and the all-island CAIM network is seeking to hold back the tide.

It appears that the UK Ambassador to the US,  Lord Peter Mandelson  (who had also previously lobbied the UK government on behalf of Shell) has apparently written to the head of the UK Civil Service about the matter. A coalition of four US congressmen have also recently written to Northern Ireland's Executive about the goldmine. The Canadian company, Dalradian, is now 97% owned by a US private equity firm – Orion Mine Finance.  

Fidelma O’Kane:  Community member and Secretary of Save Our Sperrins. Formerly a social worker and lecturer, Fidelma O’Kane turned her efforts to nature and community rights protection upon her retirement. Fidelma took a Judicial Review against Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) and Dalradian, after NIEA granted Dalradian a Discharge Consent to flush water containing nine heavy metals into Owenkillew River, which is designated as a Special Area of Conservation. After 23 months in the High Court in Belfast, in November 2019 the NIEA finally conceded and the Discharge Consent was quashed. 

If you were at the event, Financial Justice Ireland has a feedback form available, should you wish to contribute to their learnings from the discussion.