Romina Tantaleán-Castañeda (MA'20) is a PhD student in the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice who studies Indigenous knowledge and environmental justice.
Most legal systems treat rivers and forests as property: resources that can be owned, managed, and extracted. But many Indigenous communities understand them differently — as living beings with whom humans have reciprocal relationships. What would it mean for the law to recognize that perspective?
That question sits at the heart of Romina Tantaleán-Castañeda’s research. A PhD candidate at UBC’s Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, Romina is working in partnership with FEMIPA, a federation of Indigenous women in the Peruvian Amazon. Together, they are exploring how Indigenous women are defending their territories, rivers, and forests in the face of resource extraction and environmental destruction.
“Indigenous communities have long been leading this work. The question is whether governments, institutions, and the rest of us are truly willing to listen and learn from them, and, more importantly, to work alongside and under their leadership in building the responses that this moment demands.”
Her research examines what more just environmental protections could look like — and what legal systems would need to change to make them possible. She is also collaborating with FEMIPA on a documentary that amplifies the voices of the women driving this work.
Her findings arrive at a critical moment, as governments, courts, and Indigenous communities around the world grapple with how to respond to accelerating climate and biodiversity crises.
Can you tell us about your work with FEMIPA and what you’re researching together?
My doctoral research focuses on Indigenous women in the Peruvian Amazon who are defending their territories and forests from resource extraction and environmental destruction. I’m working in partnership with the Federation of Indigenous Women of Atalaya Province (FEMIPA), an organization that brings together women from several Indigenous nations in the Ucayali Region of Peru.
Together, we are exploring how Indigenous women’s knowledge and leadership shape efforts to protect their lands, rivers, and forests — places they describe as “a sibling that breathes,” where the health of the environment and the community are inseparable. The research also examines how legal systems might better recognize forests and rivers as living beings with rights, rather than resources to be extracted.
Romina Tantaleán-Castañeda (right) with Miriam Perez-Pinedo (centre), president of FEMIPA and co-researcher on the project, and María Shuñaqui-Sangama (left), former secretary of FEMIPA and cultural advisor to the research team, during a workshop in the Ashéninka Community of Materiato, Atalaya Province, Peru (2025).
How did you become engaged in this work?
My interest in this work is deeply personal. I grew up in Peru witnessing the violence of the internal armed conflict, along with a family whose involvement in politics brought its own challenges. Those experiences shaped my commitment to social justice and human rights.
As a lawyer and activist working with Indigenous and feminist organizations in Peru, I saw firsthand how resource extraction policies disproportionately affect Indigenous communities, especially women. I also saw the gap between what legal systems promise and what communities actually experience. At a time of accelerating climate and environmental crises, I believe it’s essential to stand alongside Indigenous communities defending their territories and ways of life.
A co-designed workshop with FEMIPA in the Ashéninka Community of Materiato, Atalaya Province, Peru (2025).
What impact do you hope your research can have in addressing climate challenges?
I hope this research helps strengthen approaches to environmental protection that are rooted in Indigenous knowledge and leadership.
Around the world, there is growing recognition that rivers, forests, and ecosystems should have legal rights. In Canada, for example, the Magpie River was granted legal personhood in 2021. My research looks at how Indigenous women are helping drive these conversations and what more just environmental protections could look like. Through the research and documentary project, I also hope to amplify the leadership of Amazonian Indigenous women and support broader conversations about environmental and climate justice.
Romina Tantaleán-Castañeda during a co-designed workshop with FEMIPA in the Ashéninka Community of Puerto Alegre, Atalaya Province, Peru (2025).
What’s one thing you’d like people to take away from your work?
Indigenous communities have long been leading this work. The question is whether governments, institutions, and the rest of us are truly willing to listen and learn from them, and, more importantly, to work alongside and under their leadership in building the responses that this moment demands.
That starts with fundamentally rethinking our relationships with rivers, forests and ecosystems — not as resources to be extracted and exploited for profit, but as living beings worthy of respect, care, and protection.
Romina Tantaleán-Castañeda is a UBC Public Scholar and the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including a Four-Year Doctoral Fellowship, the President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award, the Public Humanities Hub Graduate Research Fellowship, the UBC W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics Graduate Fellowship, International Doctoral Research Awards (IDRA) from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and UBC Latin American and Caribbean Landscapes Cluster Grants.
Before coming to UBC, Romina worked in Peru as a lawyer and policy specialist focused on human rights, gender equity, and Indigenous rights. During her master’s studies, she also served as a Healthy City Scholar with the City of Vancouver.
