Multispecies imaginaries for river justice: Mobilising in defence of the Piatúa River, Ecuador

Abstract

This paper focuses on multispecies imaginaries and their relation to actions, movements, and coalitions for river justice. It does so based on the case of the Piatúa River, a free-flowing, highly biodiverse river in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Since 2014, the Piatúa has been threatened by hydropower development that would seriously impact its biodiversity and the livelihoods of local Kichwa communities. Members of these communities, working with allies (e.g., scientists, environmental NGOs working with Rights of Rivers, kayakers), mobilised against the dam. Their mobilisation is centrally informed by their river imaginaries, which assemble the Piatúa in plural, relational, fluid ways, sharing common ground in their political project of preserving this river as a lively, free-flowing, multispecies entity. We argue that, through these multispecies imaginaries, the Piatúa became a “boundary object” around which different actors were able to converge in river defence actions. This highlights the inherently political nature of imaginaries, which we recognise to be deeply grounded in material realities. We suggest that the strengthening and/or re-enlivening of particular imaginaries and the modes of relationship with rivers that they encourage is crucial for advancing multispecies justice.