Rights of Nature

Patricio Chambers serves as the Guayllabamba Waterkeeper in Ecuador, taking over leadership from his father, Rafael Chambers. Rooted in the Andean worldview that humans and nature are part of one unified reality, Patricio mobilizes communities across Metropolitan Quito through Mingas, a form of traditional indigenous collective cleanup celebrations. His team is also preparing to host the upcoming Waterkeeper Alliance global conference. His work represents a unique multi-generational commitment, engaging four generations of his family, down to his four-year-old grandson.This conversation focuses on Ecuador’s historic 2008 constitutional recognition of the Rights of Nature (Pachamama). As the first country in the world to establish a biocentric legal framework, Ecuador legally grants rivers and ecosystems the inherent right to exist, persist, and regenerate. Local advocates successfully leveraged this constitutional foundation to declare Quito’s polluted Monjas River a subject of rights. Patricio addresses the practical gap between written constitutional law and field enforcement, demonstrating why legal protections must be matched with continuous community action to restore living watersheds.