Let the Rivers Run

An investigation into the rights of nature

- ANDREA GAWRYLEWSKI

IN 2008 ECUADOR RATIFIED a new constitution with a radical addition.

In the first national declaration of its kind, articles 71 to 74 of the document granted rights to nature, recognizing Pacha Mama, or Mother Earth, as a living entity with the rights to exist, persist and be restored when damaged. In his latest book, Is a River Alive?, nature writer Robert Macfarlane travels to three different rivers (in Ecuador, India and eastern Canada) to examine the question of a river's sovereignty.

He documents the ways that rivers serve as the hearts of dynamic ecosystems and how people are beginning to take notice and protect them. As many Indigenous populations throughout the world have recognized for millennia, these bodies of water give life wherever they run. Yet rivers remain at risk as polluting corporations and governmental activities violate their vitalizing flow.

We spoke with Macfarlane about Is a River Alive? and the dramatic personal journey he went on while researching and writing the book.

An edited transcript of the interview follows.

The central question of your book is: What inherent rights does nature have? And you explore the answer through the stories of rivers. What inspired you to tackle this existential topic?