On March 23rd, 24th, 31st, October 20th and November 3rd 2018, we organized workshops in the communities of Buenos Aires del Mandur, Las Perlas, Galilea, and with the Association of Women Gold Panners in Santa Lucia to begin to reconstruct the socio-ecological memory of the Mandur River watershed. Our goal was to reconstruct the socio-environmental history of the territory, engage in a popular diagnosis of the state of the flora and fauna, and support community actions to recover and conserve the watershed. We sought to create spaces for community dialogue to discuss the problems affecting the watershed: gold mining, oil exploration, deforestation, expansion of cattle ranching, illicit coca crops, lack of potable water, state abandonment, presence of armed groups, and conflicts between rural communities. During the workshops, residents shared the reasons that they settled and remained living in the territory of the Mandur: fishing, swimming, mobility, beauty, los paseos de olla, the refreshing microclimates produced by the shade of the trees along the banks of the river, the wild animals that they hunted and lived with, and the access to water. They recognized the need to mitigate the contamination occurring at the headwaters in the upper part of the watershed and to reforest the middle and lower parts of the watershed, proposing solutions to conserve the water and forests through community agreements. The mid and long range goals with the communities of the watershed include recovering not only the Mandur River, but also the areas of forest, wetland, creeks and streams; constructing practices of ‘living well’ in the territory; and transforming the economic systems in harmony with the selva, the river, and all of their beings