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.
Creators and Guests
Host
Thomas Hynes
Thomas Hynes is the Communications and Marketing Manager for Waterkeeper Alliance. In addition to podcast hosting and production duties, he manages and writes all sorts of editorial content for the organization, including blogs, feature articles, advocacy alerts, email campaigns, social media content, and more. Thomas grew up on the Long Island Sound in Connecticut and now makes his home two blocks from the East River in Brooklyn, New York. He primarily commutes across the river to the Waterkeeper Alliance office via ferry boat. Thomas was drawn to environmental work in order to take an active role in the fight against climate change and help bring justice to the rotten polluters who seek to ruin our shared resources. Before working at Waterkeeper Alliance, Thomas wrote a nonfiction book about the history of wildlife in New York City. "Wild City" also highlights the power and success of the Clean Water Act, and other environmental regulations, in leading an unlikely ecological turnaround. In his spare time, Thomas photographs the many tugboats traversing the city’s various waterways. Thomas lives in Brooklyn with his wife and their son. They can be found most weekends walking or biking along the East River.
Producer
Lori Harrison
Lori Harrison is the Communications and Marketing Director for Waterkeeper Alliance. She oversees multi-faceted communications and marketing activities to advance the organization’s mission of protecting our right to clean water in communities around the world. With 25 years of experience in strategic water communications and mission-based work, Lori is an award-winning writer and content creator. Her expertise lies in translating complex concepts into relatable ideas, fostering engagement, and promoting sustainable practices and solutions. Her work not only aims to protect clean water, public health, and the environment but also focuses on "connecting the disconnect" between people and this essential resource. Before joining Waterkeeper Alliance, Lori had a background in corporate marketing for professional sports and held various communications and creative positions with a non-profit educational organization for global water professionals. Notable achievements include creating the WATER'S WORTH IT® grassroots awareness campaign and writing the award-winning children's book, “Why Water's Worth It,” designed to educate and inspire the next generation of water protectors. Lori lives in Virginia with her husband and their two children.
Guest
Patricio Chambers
Patricio Chambers is the Guayllabamba Waterkeeper in Pichincha, Ecuador. He replaced his father Rafael Chambers, the former Guayllabamba Waterkeeper. He has a civil engineering degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador and more than 25 years of experience in project planning. He has also earned a specialized degree in board management, a Master's degree in higher education teaching, and a certification as an expert in comparative Eastern and Western philosophies. Patricio has been a university professor at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels for 15 years. He founded and led the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador’s School of Systems in the town of Ambato in the central Andean valley of Ecuador and led the drafting and implementation of a strategic plan for that town. Patricio worked for several years as a project scheduler and web information systems administrator serving as a consultant on various engineering projects, as well as in planning & processes in transparency projects at Quito Municipality. For more than three decades Patricio has been leading activities linked to the protection of waterways, the environment, reforestation, and building the capacity of concerned citizens around environmental stewardship. Since his youth, he has been a volunteer at PACEINE (Cerebral palsy institute), and an instructor of human values and practical philosophy as a member of the NA Ecuador Educational Foundation. Patricio writes weekly articles for El Heraldo newspaper and has published several articles for magazines and other newspapers. Patricio has been linked to Guayllabamba Waterkeeper from its inception as a labor of love of the Chambers family. Guayllabamba Waterkeeper aims to rid the upper reaches of the Guayllabamba River of urban and industrial pollution. Their current project is ravine restoration.
