Indigenous Peruvian activist Mariluz Canaquiri Murayari, who had advocated personhood for the Maranon river, wins Goldman Environmental Prize

Mariluz Canaquiri Murayari, a community organizer, and Indigenous Kukama leader from the Peruvian Amazon, has won this year’s prestigious Goldman Prize for her work to secure legal recognition of the Maranon river’s rights. 

Murayari was nominated for the award by International Rivers, a global organisation with 40 years of work and regional offices in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

The indigenous activist, who was raised on the banks of the Maranon, had seen the waterway being choked by oil spills, polluted by illegal mining, and threatened by the Hidrovia Amazonica (Amazon Waterway) and 22 planned hydroelectric dams, a statement by International Rivers noted.

More than 60 spills from the North Peruvian pipeline contaminated the water her people rely on for drinking, bathing, and fishing. Entire communities experienced a rise in unexplained illnesses: fevers, headaches, diarrhea, skin rashes, and miscarriages.

Following a 2010 oil spill, she helped organise local women into the Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana (“Hard-Working Women”).

The Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana is a movement formed to defend the rights, territory and river (Maranon) of women from 29 Indigenous communities in the district of Parinari along the water body.

It filed a landmark lawsuit demanding legal personhood for the Maranon in 2021, supported by the Instituto de Defensa Legal (IDL), International Rivers, and the Earth Law Center.

In March of 2024, the court in Nauta ruled in their favor. It declared the Marañón River as the subject of rights—the right to flow freely, to be free from pollution, and to be restored.

Crucially, the ruling recognises Indigenous communities as the guardians of the river. It was the first such ruling in Peru, placing the Marañón alongside other globally recognised rivers like the Whanganui River in New Zealand and the Atrato River in Colombia. 

Murayari had also filed a groundbreaking legal action against the Hidrovía Amazónica project for failing to carry out proper consultation with Indigenous peoples in 2014.

The court in Nauta upheld their claim in 2014, and the Civil Chamber of the Loreto Court reaffirmed it in 2015. Their efforts helped lead to the project’s suspension in December 2022—another major victory for the Marañón, led by Kukama women and their allies.

Other recipients of this year’s Goldman Prize include: Laurene Allen, Semia Gharbi, Besjana Guri, Olsi Nika, Batmunkh Luvsandash, and Carlos Mallo Molina.

The Goldman Environmental Prize honours the achievements and leadership of grassroots environmental activists from around the world, inspiring all of us to take action to protect our planet.