Washington, DC – Today, Amazon Watch, the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), and Extinction Rebellion mobilized dozens of demonstrations in over twenty countries across six continents in a Global Day of Action for the Amazon. These non-violent, peaceful demonstrations around the world shine a light on the cycle of political corruption and profiteering of the Brazilian government and multinational corporations at the expense of the Amazon rainforest, its indigenous peoples, and the future of our planet.
The worldwide demonstrations are aimed not only at Brazilian embassies and consulates, but also at global corporations profiting from the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.
Last week, Amazon Watch and allies in the environmental justice and indigenous rights movement released a list of the ‘Dirty Dozen’ financial, trading, and retail corporations most driving deforestation and the resulting raging fires in Brazil. Organizations including Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Rainforest Action Network, Friends of the Earth, and more have added their names to the public call for these corporations to challenge the exploitative policies of the Brazilian government, suspend all financing to agribusiness firms active in the Brazilian Amazon and the Cerrado, and immediately work to resolve the crisis in the Amazon.
Christian Poirier, Amazon Watch Program Director, said:
“Today, thousands of people around the world are mobilizing alongside Brazil’s resistance to the Bolsonaro regime. From Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia to San Francisco and Hong Kong, people across generations, backgrounds, and borders, are expressing their outrage over the destructive fires and their solidarity with the determined efforts of indigenous peoples to defend the forest and our collective wellbeing. At Amazon Watch we will remain steadfast in our efforts to protect the rainforest and defeat the regressive forces seeking to reduce it to ashes, and we call on allies to continue building our collective strength to halt the political and corporate forces behind today’s assault on the Amazon and its peoples.”
Sônia Guajajara, Executive Coordinator of APIB, said:
“Just getting angry on social media is not enough to address the scale of Amazon destruction we are witnessing. We need to stop this absurdity. Today, the 5th of September, the Amazon is in the streets. There are dozens of cities mobilized around the world. In Brazil there are more than seventy cities mobilized. We must get organized, get active, and join forces in defense of the Amazon and in defense of our future.”
For a list of the registered Global Day of Action for the Amazon demonstrations, click here.
For a list of ways to support Amazon Watch’s work to defend the Amazon, click here.
Photos and video from demonstrations around the world are available upon request.
Activation Highlights:
In Washington D.C., from noon to 2:00 pm (GMT-4), district residents will demonstrate outside of the White House to protest President Trump’s complicity in allowing the Amazon to burn and Congress’ inaction in preventing U.S. corporations from driving the destruction of the Amazon Basin and displacement of indigenous inhabitants for profit. The demonstration will march from the White House, past the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, to the Brazilian Consulate, where the role of the Brazilian government in the Amazon Basin’s destruction will be publicly scrutinized.
In San Francisco, CA, from noon to 2:00 pm (GMT-7), residents of the northern California region will descend on downtown San Francisco to demonstrate against the role of the Brazilian government and global asset manager, BlackRock, in the destruction of the Amazon Basin and displacement of its indigenous inhabitants. Demonstrators will begin at the Brazilian Consulate and will march through the streets to BlackRock’s regional office.
In Sofia, Bulgaria, from 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm (GMT+3), Bulgarian residents will demonstrate in front of Cargill offices in order to publicly protest the corporation’s heavy-handed role in the destruction of the Amazon Basin. Cargill is one of the world’s largest commodity traders, and has been a corporate leader in the deforestation of the Amazon to expand beef processing operations and animal-feed cash crops.
In London, from noon to 1:00 pm (GMT+1), Londoners will demonstrate in front of BlackRock’s European HQ office in order to publicly protest BlackRock’s thoroughly documented role as a key financier of corporations behind deforestation in the Amazon, as well as its place as the top investor in fossil fuel industries.
In Palmerston North, New Zealand, at 10:00 am (GMT+12), Kiwis will hold a vigil and funeral march in the central square in recognition of the devastating fires in the Amazon.
