Peruvian Indigenous advocate receives the prestigious climate justice award for her groundbreaking campaign to secure legal rights for the Marañón River.
San Francisco, Calif.–Today, the Goldman Environmental Prize announced its 2025 slate of winners, including Mariluz Canaquiri Murayari, a grandmother, community organizer, and Indigenous Kukama leader from the Peruvian Amazon. Mariluz led a groundbreaking campaign to secure the legal recognition of the Marañón River’s rights, marking a historic win for river protection in Latin America and globally.
“Thanks to Mariluz’s unflagging courage and commitment, the Marañón River now has the legal protections it needs to survive and heal for generations to come,” said Josh Klemm, executive director of International Rivers, which nominated her for the award. “Her story is a powerful example of the vital role of Indigenous women in defending the earth’s most precious and threatened ecosystems.”
Raised on the banks of the Marañón basin in Peru’s Loreto region, Mariluz grew up appreciating the river as sacred and life-giving. But over the years, she witnessed it choked by oil spills, polluted by illegal mining, and threatened by the Hidrovia Amazonica (Amazon Waterway) and 22 planned hydroelectric dams. 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. Yet, little was done.
Refusing to stay silent, following a 2010 oil spill, Mariluz helped organize local women into the Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana (“Hard-Working Women”). Represented by women from 29 Indigenous communities in the district of Parinari along the Marañón River, the Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana is a movement to defend their rights, their territory, and their river. In 2021, supported by the Instituto de Defensa Legal (IDL), International Rivers, and the Earth Law Center, they filed a landmark lawsuit demanding legal personhood for the Marañón.
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 recognizes Indigenous communities as the guardians of the river. It was the first such ruling in Peru, placing the Marañón alongside other globally recognized rivers like the Whanganui River in New Zealand and the Atrato River in Colombia.
Mariluz’s leadership in defending the Marañón predates the legal victory. In 2014, together with fellow Kukama leader Emilse Flores, Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana, and the Instituto de Defensa Legal (IDL) filed a groundbreaking legal action against the Hidrovía Amazónica project for failing to carry out proper consultation with Indigenous peoples. 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.
International Rivers is a global organization with 40 years of work and regional offices in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The group works so that riparian communities and people affected by dams have their voices heard and their rights respected. International Rivers helps create active and well-instrumented networks of civil society groups and conducts independent, investigative research to protect rivers and defend the rights of communities that depend on them.
The Goldman Environmental Prize honors the achievements and leadership of grassroots environmental activists from around the world, inspiring all of us to take action to protect our planet.
Contacts:
Kate Fried, kfried@internationalrivers.org
contact@internationalrivers.org