00:00An indigenous nation in Brazil is working to pass legislation to grant legal personhood rights to one of the world's
00:08largest rivers.
00:09Our correspondent Brian Mir Hasmar.
00:13The 2,900 kilometer long San Francisco River flows through five Brazilian states and holds a beloved status in the
00:20imagination of the Brazilian people.
00:22But years of hydroelectric projects, invasive species and pollution from agricultural runoff have taken their toll.
00:29Now in the municipality of Takara 2, Pernambuco, the Pankara Roo indigenous nation has submitted a bill to the city
00:36council to grant legal personhood to the river.
00:41We teach our children that the river is our father, our grandfather, our dear ancestor, and that it needs help.
00:47The river extends beyond our territory, but it is a reflection of our territory, and it is our life.
00:53It is our most sacred being, so we have to preserve it, denounce injustice against it, and make historic reparations
00:59due to the barbarous acts committed against it.
01:04Despite their territory bordering on the river, the Pankara Roo have seen more and more of it fenced off by
01:09invading private landowners.
01:11Their hope is that passing the law will enable them to recuperate their free access to the river and have
01:17more legal justification to sue companies that are polluting the river within the municipal territory.
01:24This law will grant us rights and access to the river, which will become a rights holder.
01:30It will enable us to advocate better for it and to freely perform our religious rituals on its banks.
01:42Starting with the 2008 constitution in Ecuador, where ecosystems were granted rights as legal entities,
01:49the movement to grant personhood to bodies of water like lakes and rivers has spread around the world.
01:54The bill in Takara 2 represents the first such initiative in Brazil, and if passed,
01:59the Pankara Roo plan to work with other indigenous groups along the South Francisco River to pass similar laws in
02:05their municipalities.
02:07I believe this law will change a lot because it will give us peace and enable us to guarantee that
02:14the river can breathe,
02:14it will clean its image, and improve the water quality, so that the river will no longer be sick like
02:20it is today.
02:21In Pernambuco and around the world, the fight for the rights of rivers and lakes continues.
02:26Brian Meir, TELESUR, Takara 2, Pernambuco.
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