Atrato River
In November 2016 the Constitutional Court of Colombia ruled that the Atrato River basin possesses rights to "protection, conservation, maintenance, and restoration." This ruling came about as a result of degradation to the river basin from mining, which has adversely affected nature and harmed Afro-Colombian and Indigenous peoples and their cultures. The court referred to the New Zealand declaration of the Whanganui River as a legal person holding environmental personhood. The court ordered that joint guardianship would be undertaken in the representation of the Atrato River basin. Similarly to the New Zealand declaration, the representatives would come from the national government and the Indigenous peoples living in the basin.