The Piatúa River is one of the last free-flowing rivers in Ecuador to have so far escaped contamination from mining, pollution, and other forms of negative human interference. It forms a precious ecological corridor across the Amazon rainforest and has been home to both human and other-than-human communities for millennia. Since 2014, however, an Ecuadorian energy company has been trying to build a hydro dam in the area, which would capture more than 70% of the river’s water flow and significantly impact its biodiversity. It also represents a threat against the cultural and historical rights of local Kichwa communities, one of the reasons why they have been actively mobilising against this hydropower development plan. Local communities and environmental organisations have therefore been trying to protect the Piatúa and its local inhabitants (human and non-human), namely by appealing to the rights of the river and of its peoples.

PhD researcher: Carlota Houart

Local, on the ground resistance has been ongoing to halt the hydroelectric dam from being built in the Piatúa River. PONAKICSC (Pueblo Originario de la Nacionalidad Kichwa del Cantón de Santa Clara) and youth-led collective Piatúa Resiste, as organizations created by local community members, have joined forces with local and international environmental organizations, engaged academics, natural scientists, among others, to provide legal protection for their ancestral river against this hydro-dam project. PhD researcher Carlota Houart has been collaborating since 2023 with members of these two organizations to learn more about the multispecies imaginaries that drive political mobilization on behalf of the Piatúa River, and to hopefully amplify their struggle of resistance against hydro-extractivism. More information on her fieldwork experiences can be found here.