Debating REDD

One prominent proposed solution to climate change is the UN-backed project Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). Given that indigenous peoples inhabit the majority of remaining tropical forests, any REDD strategy or project must respect indigenous rights, including the right to free, prior, and informed consent.More »

Mahogany’s Last Stand

Illegal logging has all but wiped out Peru's mahogany. Loggers are turning their chain saws on lesser known species critical to the health of the rain forest.

April 2013 | National Geographic

Illicit practices are believed to account for three-fourths of the annual Peruvian timber harvest. Despite a crackdown on mahogany logging that began five years ago and a sharp decline in production, much of the timber reaching markets in the industrialized world is reported to be of illegal origin. Most of those exports have gone to the U.S. but are now increasingly bound for Asia.More »

Internationally-Renowned Environmental Leader Marina Silva Visits San Francisco Bay Area

Trip agenda includes roundtable discussion with Bay Area environmental leaders, Bioneers presentations

October 18, 2012 | Press Release

San Francisco, CA – In a rare visit to the San Francisco Bay Area, 1996 Goldman Environmental Prize winner Marina Silva will introduce the Bay Area environmental community to her newly-launched center on sustainable development, Instituto Marina Silva, at a roundtable discussion hosted by the Goldman Prize and Amazon Watch.More »

California Groups Urge Governor to Reject International Forest Carbon Credits

July 11, 2012 | Press Release

San Francisco, CA – A group of over 30 California-based organizations yesterday sent a letter to Governor Brown urging him to reject the use of international forest carbon offsets credits in the state's cap and trade system. More »

Kari-Oca II Declaration: Indigenous Peoples at Rio+20 Reject the Green Economy and REDD

June 20, 2012 | REDD Monitor

In 1992, while the first Rio Earth Summit took place, hundreds of indigenous peoples met and produced the Kari-Oca Declaration and the Indigenous Peoples Earth Charter. 20 years later, in parallel with Rio +20 meeting, more than five hundred indigenous peoples met and produced the Kari-Oca II Declaration.More »

AIDESEP Visits Washington, DC

An Indigenous Organization's Fight for Community-Based Conservation

March 4, 2012 | Blog Post

Roberto brings an analysis of why AIDESEP's community-based proposals will protect more forest (and reduce more carbon emissions), and Daysi speaks to the need for expanded indigenous land tenure as an integral part of any conservation effort.More »

"What the New Forest Code in Brazil Means for Deforestation"

An Amazon Watch "Green-Bag Lunch" presentation

January 25, 2012 | Video

While Brazil prepares to host the Rio +20 Earth Summit and present itself as a leading model for sustainable development, it is undertaking measures that will put the Amazon in jeopardy.More »

Lesson from Durban

We are the climate changers we've been waiting for

December 19, 2011 | Blog Post

Another global climate conference has come and gone, another heartbreaking missed opportunity for humanity to actually do something about impending climate chaos.More »

Fiddling While the Amazon Burns

Keeping the world's biggest forest standing depends on greens, Amerindians and enlightened farmers working together – if lawmakers let them

December 3, 2011 | The Economist

Jaci-Paraná, Brazil – Drive out of Porto Velho, and you see the trouble the world's largest forest is in. Lorry after lorry trundles by laden with logs; charred tree-stumps show where ranchers burned what the loggers left behind; a few cattle roam sparsely through the scrubby fields. In places the acid subsoil shows through, sandy and bone-pale.More »

Declaration of the Indigenous Peoples of the World to the UNFCCC COP 17 International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change

December 2, 2011 | Campaign Update

Durban, South Africa – We, the Indigenous Peoples of the world, united in the face of the climate crisis and the lack of political will of the States, especially the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, demand the immediate adoption of legally binding agreements with shared but differentiated responsibilities, to halt global warming and to define alternative models of development in harmony with Mother Earth.More »

New Forest Code Will Condemn the Amazon Rainforest

November 29, 2011 | Greenpeace Brazil

Last week senators in Brazil approved a text that condemns the Brazilian forests, a deal between government and agribusiness made in back rooms and secret meetings, and they rejected an amendment that calls for a ten-year moratorium on deforestation in the Amazon. This rejection revealed the true intentions behind the new Forest Code text and the sector that is behind the change.More »