Eye on the Amazon: The Official Blog of Amazon Watch
Bad Oil: The Amazon's Toxic Mess
October 9, 2011 | Zoë Tryon
I am standing in the Kichwa indigenous village of Rumipamba, breathing heavy air laden with the scent of oil, watching fathers, mothers, aunts work in the oppressive heat, cleaning up the crude that has been contaminating their ancestral lands for the last 40 years. The Kichwa hadn't even been informed what was happening when Texaco (now Chevron) came to drill for oil on their land; they hadn't been consulted when Texaco filled an unlined pit with crude and waste chemicals uphill from the village. When heavy tropical rains filled up the pit and the sides split sending crude spilling all through their waterways – no one came to clean it up. Forty years later the Ecuadorian government have given the people a machine which bubbles air though the mud and water, separating the crude and mud, then, they painstakingly scrape away the crude from the surface of the water, filling barrels as children play nearby.
Before 1964 when Texaco (now Chevron) discovered oil in the remote, pristine Northern Ecuadorian Amazon the rainforest was an area of "alpha diversity" meaning that scientists have since recognized this area as being one of the most biologically diverse in the world. The ancestral custodians of the forest the Cofán, Siona, Secoya, Kichwa and Waorani indigenous peoples, lived traditional lifestyles largely untouched by modern civilization. They hunted, fished, and their shaman (medicine men) used medicinal plants from the forest to cure all known illnesses, enjoying a rich spiritual and cultural life.
The cultures of indigenous people the world over are expressions of the ecosystems in which the cultures are embedded. The indigenous peoples language, food, music and governance are all informed by the vast rainforests in which they live. To the indigenous peoples of the Amazon the forest is their pharmacy, their hardware store, their grocery. Their profound and intimate knowledge is passed down and built upon over generations of observing and learning from Nature through experience. The rain forest is the source of wisdom, and life, humans are sustained by it, and are as much a part of the web of life as the mighty Kapok tree, Jaguar, Howler monkey or Pink dolphin.
As a child I dreamed of living with indigenous peoples in the Amazon. After studying Anthropology at Sydney University, and working with Amazon foundations I finally got my chance. I lived with the Achuar people in the South Central Ecuadorian Amazon and fell deeply in love with these warrior peoples, their worldviews, and way of life. They lived as their ancestors had done, with deep understanding of the interconnectedness of all life, be it human, flora or fauna.
The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon's Last Uncontacted Tribes
Amazon Watch recommends this new book by Scott Wallace
October 6, 2011 | Andrew E. Miller
The Unconquered tells the extraordinary tale of a journey into the deepest recesses of the Amazon to track one of the planet's last uncontacted indigenous tribes. In this gripping first-person account of adventure and survival, the author follows a 34-man team into the Amazon's uncharted depths, discovering the rainforest's secrets while moving ever closer to a possible encounter with the mysterious flecheiros – or "People of the Arrow" – a seldom-glimpsed tribe of deft archers known to defend their lands with showers of deadly arrows before melting back into the forest shadows.
Amazon Watch is proud to support the launch of The Unconquered, a book that compellingly illustrates the crucial but increasingly precarious role indigenous peoples play in the survival of the world's largest rainforest. The protection of uncontacted tribes – and of the globe's most remote regions in which they live – is of fundamental importance to the rest of us. As go uncontacted indigenous peoples, so goes the Amazon; and that has global implications for the future of humanity.
Meet the Author
In addition to purchasing the book, you can meet Scott Wallace on his book tour this fall. Schedule as follows; stay tuned for additional events.
- Tuesday, October 18: The Unconquered Launches
- Thursday October 20, Miami Beach: Books & Books
927 Lincoln Road # 118, Miami Beach, Fla. 33139. More information at: 305.532.3222
7:00pm – Reading from The Unconquered - Thursday-Friday October 20-21, Miami: Society of Environmental Journalists Annual Conference
Friday, October 21, 3:00pm – panelist, "Indigenous People and Climate Change."
Available for press interviews at other times. Contact Ellen Folan, Crown Publishing: 202.782.8944; efolan@randomhouse.com - Monday, October 24, New York City: The Half-King
505 West 23rd Street (10th Avenue), New York, NY 10011. More information at: 212.462.4300
7:00pm – The Monday Reading Series. - Thursday, November 3, Washington, DC: National Geographic Live! "Quest for Adventure" Lecture Series
Grosvenor Auditorium, National Geographic Society, 1745 M St. NW, Washington, DC 20036
7:30pm – "The Unconquered: Brazil's Arrow People."
Tickets at nationalgeographic.com or National Geographic Box Office: 202.857.7700. - Monday, November 7, New York City: The Explorers Club
46 East 70th Street, New York. Tel: 212.628.8383
7:00pm – Monday Night Lecture, open to the public: "Uncontacted Tribes of the Amazon."
Tickets at explorers.org. - Wednesday, November 9, Santa Cruz, CA: Capitola Book Cafe
1475 41st Avenue, Capitola, Calif. 95010. More information at: 831.462.4415
7:30pm – reading from The Unconquered - Thursday, November 10, Menlo Park, CA: Kepler's Books
1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, CA 94025. More information at: 650.324.4321
7:00pm – Reading from The Unconquered - Friday, November 11, Pt Reyes Station, CA: Pt Reyes Books
11315 State Route 1, Point Reyes Station, Calif. 94956. More information at: 415.663.1542
7:00pm – reading from The Unconquered - Saturday, November 12, Berkeley, CA: Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore
2904 College Avenue, Berkeley, Calif. 94705. More information: 510.704.8222
4:00pm – Reading from The Unconquered - Sunday, November 13, Corte Madera, CA: Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Boulevard, Corte Madera, Calif. 94925. More information at: 415.927.0960
4:00pm – Sunday Reading Series, reading from The Unconquered - Tuesday, November 15, Portland, OR: Powell's City of Books
1005 W. Burnside, Portland, OR 97209. More information at: 503.228.4651
7:30pm – reading from The Unconquered - Wednesday, November 16, Seattle, WA: Elliott Bay Book Company
1521 Tenth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98122. More information at: 206.624.6600
7:00pm – reading from The Unconquered and multimedia show on the Amazon's uncontacted tribes - Tuesday, November 22, Washington, DC: Busboys and Poets Langston Room, 2021 14th Street, NW (14th and V Streets) Washington, DC 20036 7:00pm – "The Unconquered: Brazil's Arrow People."
Update on the Situation in Bolivia
September 29, 2011 | Diana Garzón Serrano, DC Advocacy Intern and Andrew E. Miller, DC Advocacy Coordinator
Take Action Now!
Send a letter to the Bolivian Minister of Foreign Affairs urging the Bolivian government to curb tensions by immediately stopping the violent repression and by entering into good-faith dialogue with the marchers.
Yesterday Amazon Watch released an action alert in support and defense of the indigenous communities of the Isiboro Sécure National park and indigenous Territories (TIPNIS), from repression carried out by the police against the protesters while they were marching to La Paz, Bolivia's capitol city.
We are delighted report that since we launched the action, over 3,000 people have sent the letter of concern to the Bolivian authorities! But we need to keep working and sending our support to the TIPNIS communities. Please take action if you haven't already.
Sheyla Juruna's Speech at Our Annual Luncheon
September 27, 2011 | Sheyla Juruna
The Xingu needs support. Can I count on you?Sheyla Juruna
As Sheyla Juruna, indigenous woman warrior from the Xingu River Basin of the Brazilian Amazon, addressed Amazon Watch's supporters at our 15 year anniversary luncheon on Tuesday, you could hear a pin drop. With passion in her voice and love in her heart, she expressed the urgency to stop the dam for the future of her children, our children and all future generations. She reminded us that the struggle to defend the Xingu is not an isolated struggle. It is a struggle to defend the Amazon and our entire planet from unchecked and unsustainable "development" that will decimate indigenous peoples, the true stewards of the Amazon, unless we stop it. To truly understand the urgency, read Sheyla's speech:
Good afternoon to everyone.
First of all, I would like to thank Amazon Watch for the opportunity they are giving me to share the reality of the indigenous peoples living in the Brazilian Amazon.
Tell Bolivia: Stop the Repression, Respect Indigenous Rights
September 28, 2011 | Andrew E. Miller
Take Action Now!
Send a letter to the Bolivian Minister of Foreign Affairs urging the Bolivian government to curb tensions by immediately stopping the violent repression and by entering into good-faith dialogue with the marchers.
A protest march by Bolivian indigenous peoples turned violent on Sunday the 25th as 500 Bolivian police tear-gassed, fired upon with rubber bullets, and beat a group of hundreds of protesters.
Background:
Since mid-August, over 1000 indigenous demonstrators have been marching along a 500km road from the Amazon to La Paz, Bolivia's capitol city. Their central concern is a governmental plan to build a road through the heart of the ecologically sensitive Isiboro Sécure National Park and Indigenous Territory (TIPNIS, in its Spanish acronym). The indigenous peoples within TIPNIS have not been consulted about the proposed road, as is required by the Bolivian Constitution. Studies anticipate that the road's construction would lead to 2/3 deforestation of the park's 1.3 million hectares within two decades, severely threatening the area's 1100 species of flora and fauna.
