“Seen from one perspective, the Paraguay-Paraná is a wetlands system on a continental scale, constantly changing and evolving, literally overflowing with life. But from another perspective it’s just a canal, a watery highway for the transport of grain and petrochemicals. How to save a unique Latin American river from the kind of industrial transformation suffered by the Mississippi? Eco-activists from Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina have spent thirty years formulating a still-uncertain answer. Here is the untold story of the Ríos Vivos coalition and its successor groups, Alianza Sistema and Wetlands without Borders. It’s the story of a four thousand kilometer-long river without locks, dams or major levees, still flowing freely because of biocultural relations between humanity and nature.” — Brian Holmes