Amo el Río: strengthening the connection with our rivers
In Peru, we have the privilege to have the longest and mightiest river in the world, the Amazon River. It’s a water jewel fed by more than a thousand tributaries, and the welcoming home of dolphins, river wolves, manatees, catfish, and many other aquatic wildlife.
The conservation of wetlands in this special system is essential because it represents a fifth of the planet's freshwater and nourish the Amazon of life. However, deforestation, activities like mining and fossil fuels extraction, mismanagement of sewage, the huge accumulation of solid waste, and even the latent threat of high-impact projects such as dams and dredging rivers, could generate an increasing deterioration of water quality and flow in an alarming rate.
For this reason, Amo el Río was born as an initiative to strengthen emotional ties between the young people of Ucayali and Iquitos with their Amazonian rivers. Our purpose is to inspire them to protect their rivers and support them to be its main guardians, key for the economic and social development of their cities.
Through a range of interventions which show the importance of loving a Healthy, Clean, Alive and Free River, we make visible the measures required to face rivers´ challenges. In this way, young people become truly change agents, positioning in the public agenda concrete actions in favor of rivers.
Amo el Río is an initiative developed with the commitment of the National Water Authority, the Amazon Development Council for Aquaculture, Fisheries and MSEs (CADAP), the Decentralized Direction of the Ministry of Culture of Iquitos, Ciudad Saludable, Red Interquorum, GATIA, WCS, UTEC, and WWF Peru.
