The atrato river and its guardians: Ecopolitical imagination for weaving new rights

Abstract

Judgment T-622 of 2016 of the Constitutional Court that recognizes the Atrato basin as an entity subject to rights represents an unprecedented opportunity for the ecopolitical imagination in Colombia. This recognition poses challenges as it requires translation and representation work to define the effective rights of the basin. Part of this work has been carried out by the Guardians of the Atrato who are in charge of the recognition and safeguard of rights not yet specified. In this paper, we address the issue of river rights not only as a problem of legal representation but also as an eco-political exercise that seeks to tie, in novel ways, lives, practices and knowledges that flourish throughout the Atrato.