2013 | Amazon Watch
Amazon Watch

All: 2013

Indigenous Amazonía

On the front lines in the race to avoid ecosystem collapse

We know indigenous peoples are important stewards of the environment. But specifically how do they protect their territory? Watch a presentation by Amazon Watch's Andrew Miller on specific struggles in Peru, Brazil, and Ecuador.

Voices of Xingu: Xikrin Kayapó Courage

"Last year, because of construction, we noticed mud in the water, and the fish started dying. We asked if anyone from the company could explain these effects but no one ever came to explain anything or to talk about compensation."

Rain Forest Warriors: How Indigenous Tribes Protect the Amazon

With outside help, tribes like the Kayapo defend their land against ranchers, loggers, and miners

National Geographic | Brazil's deforestation rate has stopped; not everywhere, but at the borders of what appears from space to be a green island the size of a small country. The brown spreads around this protected zone in the southern Xingu river basin of Brazil, but doesn't penetrate. These are the borders of the lands of indigenous tribes.

The Battle of Belo Monte

All about the third largest dam in the world

Folha de S.Paulo | São Paulo, Brazil – Today, the Folha website published the English version of "The Battle of Belo Monte", the first multimedia article from the "All About" series that launched other digital dossiers over 2014.

Oil Industry "Devastating" for Amazon Communities, Warns UN Rapporteur

James Anaya says oil companies have affected health and food sources of indigineous people in the Peruvian rainforest

The Guardian | Indigenous people in Peru have suffered "devastating consequences" as a result of extractive industries in the Amazon rainforest, according to the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights.

Amazon Watch is building on more than 25 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.

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Chevron's Threat to Open Society

Institutions, Organizations and Individuals Advocating for Corporate Accountability Condemn Chevron’s Retaliatory Attacks on Human Rights and Corporate Accountability Advocates and See it as a Serious Threat to Open Society and Due Process of Law

We condemn the actions by Chevron in its efforts to silence critics and ignore a $9.5 billion judgment against it for environmental damage in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Chevron's actions set a dangerous precedent and represent a growing and serious threat to the ability of civil society to hold corporations accountable for their misdeeds around the...

Prominent Organizations Publicly Condemn Chevron's Actions in Ecuador Case

Oakland, CA – Today, a dozen prominent environmental and human rights organizations including Amazon Watch, the Sierra Club, 350.org and Food and Water Watch issued a public letter condemning Chevron's actions in its decades-long legal battle to evade responsibility for deliberately dumping billions of gallons of toxic wastewater into the...

Could Hell Be Starting to Freeze Over in Canada?

"This order will allow us the opportunity to hold Chevron accountable for fleeing the scene of its environmental crimes in Ecuador after a valid judgment was entered against it," said Fajardo, lead lawyer for the communities.

Canada Orders Enforcement Action to Proceed Against Chevron in Ecuador Pollution Case

Toronto, Canada – Indigenous and farmer communities in Ecuador scored a major victory over Chevron today when an Ontario appeals court ruled they have the right to pursue enforcement of a $9.5 billion Ecuadorian court judgment against Chevron's assets in Canada. "After all these years, the Ecuadorian plaintiffs deserve to have the...

Ontario Court Revives Chevron Amazon Pollution Case

The Globe and Mail | Referring to comments from a Chevron spokesman that the company would "fight this until hell freezes over" and then "fight it out on the ice," Justice James MacPherson of the Court of Appeal writes: "Chevron's wish is granted. After all these years, the Ecuadorian plaintiffs deserve to have the recognition and enforcement of the Ecuadorian...

A Bank That May Be Too Big for Brazil

Washington Post | Economists and opposition leaders say this focus on Brazil's "national champions" neglects smaller, nimbler firms that are developing new technologies and products to diversify a commodity-dependent economy. They also say that BNDES's huge loans are fueling inflation that the Central Bank of Brazil must scramble to control.

Ecuador's Highest Court vs. a Foreign Tribunal

Investor-State Tribunal of Three Private Lawyers Ignores Years of U.S. and Ecuadorian Court Rulings, Tries to Extinguish Indigenous Communities' Rights to Sue Chevron for Contamination

Eyes on Trade | The tribunal’s latest decision left one thing abundantly clear: the investor-state regime is not constrained by domestic court rulings, Constitutions, international law, or a basic sense of decency.

Mundurukú Indians in Brazil Protest Tapajós Dams

IPS | The Brazilian government, which is already building the Belo Monte mega-dam on the Xingú river in the northeastern Amazon state of Pará, also wants to construct another huge hydropower complex on the Tapajós river, in the same state.

"Don't Worry, Mom – Go Fight for Us"

Fearless, strong, and a mother of two, Mayalu's motivation springs from her ancestral roots and the dream that her children and grandchildren will inhabit a healthy Amazon, with its rivers and forests preserved and thriving.

Over 100 International Organizations Standing in Solidarity with Fundación Pachamama

On International Human Rights Day, the call for immediate reversal is echoed globally

Fundación Pachamama | Last week's dissolution by the Ecuadorian government of the NGO, Fundación Pachamama, has resulted in an outcry of international support from organizations around the world, calling for the immediate reversal of what they agree was an illegal act to repress civil liberties.

Opponents of Ecuador Oil Plan Advance Toward Referendum

Coalition trying to stop development of oil fields, some inside Unesco-recognized park

Wall Street Journal | Quito, Ecuador – A coalition of citizen groups and nongovernment organizations opposed to the development of the ITT oil block said it has collected about half the signatures needed to request a national referendum that could block the drilling. Amazon basin.

Amazon Watch Statement of Support for Fundación Pachamama Ecuador

Amazon Watch deplores the arbitrary shut down of our ally organization Fundación Pachamama, a non-governmental organization dedicated to human rights and the rights of nature. We respectfully call on President Correa and the Ecuadorian authorities to respect human rights, reinstate Fundación Pachamama, and end the crackdown on democracy and open...

Indigenous Protestors Return to the Streets of Brasilia

This week members of Brazil's indigenous peoples renewed their unwavering objection to a series of proposed laws and constitutional amendments that aim to erode their land rights.

Ecuador Shuts Down Nonprofit Environmental Group

Associated Press | "We consider it an act of violence," foundation director Belen Paez said. "That is not how one notifies a legally constituted organization that it is being shut down."

Fundación Pachamama Statement on Shutdown

Fundación Pachamama | We will not allow this aggression of which we have been victim to divert attention and debate away from the underlying issue. This is a violation of the collective rights of indigenous Amazonian peoples and the rights of nature, for an oil round that is against the will of the rightful owners of the affected territories.

Ecuador Shuts Down Environmental NGO

Government accuses group of involvement in protests against an oil license round

Wall Street Journal | "We are peaceful," said Joke Baert, a Pachamama spokeswoman. "We defend human rights and we have never promoted or supported violence. The government should carry out a deep investigation."

Protests Grow as Ecuador's Amazon Oil Auction Closes

Indigenous leaders and allies mobilize in Quito to contest final 11th Round bids

Quito, Ecuador – Protesters gathered outside the Oil and Energy Conference at the Marriott Hotel in Quito yesterday where meetings took place in a final push by the Ecuadorian government to auction off 13 oil blocks that are part of the 11th Round of oil-licensing covering over six million acres of rainforest in the Amazon.

How China Took Control of an OPEC Country's Oil

Reuters | China's aggressive quest for foreign oil has reached a new milestone: near monopoly control of crude exports from an OPEC nation, Ecuador.

Oil Extraction to Take Place in Proposed Amazon Tribe Reserve

Company slated to start producing in the next few days, but indigenous peoples' lives are at risk

The Guardian | Peru's state agency promoting oil and gas operations has announced that by the end of this month oil will be produced from new deposits in a remote part of the Peruvian Amazon near the border with Ecuador.

The Truth Has No Place in Kaplan's Court

How on Earth could this unlikely and significant victory be so ridiculously, unethically and illegally turned on its head and evolve into the shocking display that just played out in a US Federal Court?

Gold Mine Near Controversial Belo Monte Dam Suspended

Mongabay.com | "We applaud the MPF for taking vigorous steps to uphold Brazilian environmental and human rights legislation, putting the brakes on a project that would heap further tragedy on the communities already faced with the disastrous Belo Monte dam," said Amazon Watch's Christian Poirier in a statement.

Journey to the Tapajós, Rainforest Home of the Munduruku

"The message we want the world to know this is that our people are united and we will be even more united to fight for our rights," declared Akay Biorébu, second captain of the Munduruku warriors.