The Atrato River has long been an important source of water, food and transport for its rural, mostly Afro-Colombian residents who built communities on the riverbanks.

Colombia’s constitutional court declared in 2016 that the Atrato River running alongside this 2,500-person town was so important to life, it would have rights equivalent to a human.

The country’s long-running conflict continues to impact life in many rural areas, which also face threats from illegal mining and other extractive industries.

PAIMADO, Colombia (AP) — Sediment and pebbles are all that’s left on the earth around much of Bernardino Mosquera’s small riverside community in northwest Colombia’s Choco region. Just a ...

Colombia’s constitutional court declared in 2016 that the Atrato River running alongside this 2,500-person town was so important to life, it would have rights equivalent to a human.

The Atrato River has long been an important source of water, food and transport for its rural, mostly Afro-Colombian residents who built communities on the riverbanks.

Sediment and pebbles are all that’s left on the earth around much of Bernardino Mosquera’s small riverside community in northwest Colombia’s Choco region.

PAIMADO, Colombia (AP) — Sediment and pebbles are all that’s left on the earth around much of Bernardino Mosquera’s small riverside community in northwest Colombia’s Choco region. Just a ...