Mark Angelo

The global waterway advocate and founder of World Rivers Day on celebrating and conserving the planet’s rivers

- ABI HAYWARD

Having paddled more than 1,000 rivers, Mark Angelo has truly spent a lifetime’s work conserving and celebrating the world’s waterways. He reels off the names of rivers as if reciting the alphabet: Bonaventure, Chilcotin, Cowichan, Hillsborough, Humber, Mackenzie, Nahanni, Shelburne, St. Croix. In 1980, Angelo founded B.C. Rivers Day (celebrated annually on the fourth Sunday of September), which evolved into World Rivers Day in 2005. In recognition of his work as a world-renowned waterway conservationist, Angelo received the Order of British Columbia in 1998, and, two years later, was awarded the Order of Canada. His 2016 film RiverBlue documented a three-year river odyssey in which Angelo uncovered the polluting impacts of the global fashion industry. As B.C. Rivers Day turns 40 and World Rivers Day celebrates its 15th year, Angelo talks about his love of these waterways and his new film, Last Paddle: One Life, 1,000 Rivers, which explores how to protect them.