STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBER
Amigos Bravos
Water Will Define New Mexico’s Future
Amigos Bravos is a statewide water conservation organization guided by social justice principles and dedicated to preserving and restoring the ecological and cultural integrity of New Mexico’s water and the communities that depend on it. While rooted in science and the law, our work is inspired by the values and traditional knowledge of New Mexico’s diverse Hispanic and Native American land-based populations, with whom we collaborate.
Amigos Bravos’ programs and activities are developed through a collaborative process with our Board of Directors, Staff, and partnerships with like-minded environmentally-focused public and private organizations. A strategic planning process, updated every 5 years, assures that Amigos Bravos remains close to its diverse constituency of land-based local communities, Native American tribes, and urban environs while linking those insights with expertise from a variety of professionals working on natural resources, legislative policy, science, health, and education, as well as with representatives from regional and national conservation organizations.
HISTORY
1988
Amigos Bravos
In 1988, a small group of feisty friends came together to protect the Wild & Scenic Rio Grande, which was under threat of a proposed mine tailings facility to be built in the Guadalupe Mountains, immediately adjacent to the river.
Since our first victory in 1990, which saved the Guadalupe Mountains from all future mining activities, Amigos Bravos has not faltered in our commitment to protect New Mexico’s precious waters and the communities that depend on them. Based in Taos, with a statewide mission, Amigos Bravos has grown into a well-respected and nationally recognized river and water protection organization.
AMIGOS BRAVOS
Water Will Define New Mexico’s Future and New Mexico’s Waters are in Crisis.
Since 1988, Amigos Bravos has fought diligently and successfully to protect human health and New Mexico’s waters. We are a feisty group of dedicated social and environmental activists that produce on-the-ground improvements and consistently counter corporate proposals that threaten community water resources. We are not shy about taking strong action to ensure that future generations inherit a healthier and safer world.
It is a crisis caused by a combination of factors:
- A misguided federal government that promotes economic growth and corporate profits through a weakening of environmental protection safeguards including the Clean Water Act — placing human health and clean water at risk;
- A sustained drought punctuated by extreme storm events;
- Unlimited growth regardless of water shortages;
- Watersheds degraded by overuse
- Climate change.
AMIGOS BRAVOS
What does Amigos Bravos do?
Amigos Bravos’ focuses on the on-going goals of Restoring Watershed Health, Holding Polluters Accountable, and Building a Water Ethic and Stewardship for the Future. Our work focuses on organizing around Environmental Justice issues and on countering the predicted effects of Climate Change.
We accomplish our work by using three strategies:
- Civic Engagement and Action
- Policy Implementation
- Building Community Capacity
AMIGOS BRAVOS
Activities
- We build coalitions – often bringing people to the table who might not otherwise work together – to come up with creative and practical solutions to protect and restore New Mexico’s most precious resource – water.
- We stop industry from dodging regulatory safeguards and we hold all polluters accountable.
- We hold government accountable to the regulations it is meant to uphold, (the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is an example of what happens when lax government oversight meets industry greed).
- We provide Clean Water Act trainings and technical assistance to river stewards and environmental justice activists throughout the state.
- We are the Clean Water Act specialists in the state and we serve as vice-chair of the national Clean Water Network.
- We interpret regulatory and legal jargon for public and media understanding.
- We provide educational opportunities
- We design and organize community water quality monitoring initiatives.
- We protect Special Places
- We organize in communities to restore water and watersheds
- We organize trash clean-ups along rivers
- We educate decision-makers
Meet the organizations behind New Mexico Mining Watch
A strong coalition working together to protect New Mexico’s communities, land, water, and future.