Amazon Watch | Protecting the rainforest and our climate in solidarity with Indigenous peoples

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    Amazon Watch

    Eye on the Amazon

    Linked Fates: Ending Amazon Crude Will Benefit Us All

    New research shows that California is the world’s largest consumer of oil from the Amazon rainforest. California converts 50% of the Amazon oil exported globally into fuel for airports, corporations such as Amazon.com, trucking fleets such as PepsiCo, and retail gas giants such as COSTCO. This new investigation expands upon our previous research...

    December 2, 2021
    1,727 views
    6 min read

    We Will Continue to Unite and Organize for the Amazon and Climate Justice, Despite COP26

    After two intense weeks in Glasgow for COP26, we are back home reflecting on the outcomes. While the Glasgow Pact does not meet the action needed to address the climate emergency, the civil society presence was truly inspiring. Indigenous peoples, frontline communities, women, and youth attended in full force organizing for climate justice and...

    November 22, 2021
    1,101 views
    7 min read

    “Alternative Development” in the Peruvian Amazon: Deforestation, Drugs, and Death

    Over the last few decades, the Peruvian Amazon has become a hotspot for coca cultivation. Drug traffickers in the region have shown a willingness to destroy the rainforest and kill anyone in the name of profit. Indigenous leaders working to protect their Amazonian communities from land invasions, deforestation, and violence come into the cross...

    November 18, 2021
    3,269 views
    4 min read

    Isolated Indigenous Peoples Under Threat of Oil Expansion

    New access road under construction intends to go deep into Yasuní National Park's "No Go" Zone

    In late October, Ecuador’s right-wing president Guillermo Lasso declared a state of emergency, citing rising violent crime. But the surprise move also conveniently suspended civil liberties just as civil society was gearing up to protest his economic and policy proposals seeking to implement neoliberal reforms and a business-friendly environment...

    November 2, 2021
    2,445 views
    10 min read

    Our Latest Reports

    Linked Fates

    How California's oil imports affect the future of the Amazon rainforest

    “Oil drilling in our Amazon has brought contamination, disease, deforestation, destruction of our cultures, and the colonization of our territories. It is an existential threat for us and violates our fundamental rights as Indigenous peoples.” 

    December 2021
    728 views
    3 min read

    Amazon in Focus 2021

    The Amazon is at a tipping point. It is not near, it’s here. To reverse/halt this tipping point, we have joined the call from Indigenous peoples and global scientists to protect 80% of the Amazon by 2025. Not 2030 and definitely not 2050. The time to act is now!

    Fall 2021
    535 views
    2 min read

    The Amazon Rainforest-Sized Loophole in Net Zero

    How net zero pledges can lead to false solutions for Amazon rainforest and climate protection

    Trading forest protection for continued greenhouse gas emissions presents a false and dangerous "solution" to the climate crisis. Instead, emissions must be drastically reduced, forests must be protected for their own sake, Indigenous forest stewardship must be recognized and respected, and the root causes of deforestation – namely commodity...

    July 2021
    5,340 views
    2 min read

    News on Indigenous Rights, the Amazon, and Our Global Climate Crisis

    Crude Reality: One U.S. State Consumes Half the Oil from the Amazon Rainforest

    As oil companies carve up more of the rainforest, a new study says no place in the world uses more oil from beneath the Amazon than California

    NBC News | Waorani leader Nemo Guiquita has been fighting the expansion of oil drilling in her tribe’s ancestral homeland for years. She said her grandmother, Nayuma, was the first Waorani to make contact with the outside world 60 years ago. “The rainforest for us is home,” Guiquita said. “It’s our life, our pharmacy, our everything.”

    December 2, 2021
    4,458 views
    9 min read

    Will Iván Duque Protect Environmental Defenders?

    The New York Times | At COP26, President Duque of Colombia attempted to convince the world he is an environmental champion. But back in Colombia, armed gangs are threatening and murdering community leaders and environmental activists who have been trying to protect forests from destruction by mining, lumber and oil companies.

    November 18, 2021
    124 views
    2 min read

    The Real Reason Behind Bolsonaro’s Climate Promises

    Without proper enforcement mechanisms, nationalist leaders will continue to drive climate change with impunity

    The Atlantic | So far, Bolsonaro’s actions have spoken louder than any of the Brazilian delegation’s words. Back in Brazil, he lambasted a youth representative of Brazil’s indigenous community for going to COP26 only to “attack Brazil.” Surely she should have realized that the easiest way to hurt the country would have been to not attend the summit at all.

    November 12, 2021
    4,255 views
    4 min read

    Ecuador’s Consultation Process for Indigenous Lands Comes Under the Microscope

    Ecuador’s Constitutional Court has selected two legal cases, involving the Cofán and Waorani Indigenous peoples, as a basis to analyze the country’s process of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)

    Mongabay | Conflicts with mining companies have become even more serious, says Carlos Mazabanda, Ecuador field coordinator for Amazon Watch, as the state looks to expand its mining sector and relieve some of its dependence on oil. Many communities have been divided by mining companies, while conflicts in the southern province of Morona Santiago have resulted...

    November 5, 2021
    1,969 views
    6 min read

    “A Continuation of Colonialism”: Indigenous Activists Say Their Voices Are Missing at COP26

    Activists in Glasgow reject "big business" approach to climate crisis as they commemorate murdered land defenders

    The Guardian | As world leaders inside COP26 in Glasgow boasted about pledges to slash greenhouse gas emissions and end deforestation, Indigenous delegates gathered to commemorate activists killed for trying to protect the planet from corporate greed and government inaction.

    November 3, 2021
    4,246 views
    5 min read

    Oil Executives Deny Misinformation on Climate Change, Despite Evidence

    Mongabay | “Chevron has about 70 serious cases of environmental impunity in 31 countries worldwide, owing over $50 billion in settlement debts. When are you going to cut the check?” Tlaib said at the hearing. “You can poison the planet to make money, but we are going to defend the planet so we can live.”

    November 2, 2021
    504 views
    5 min read

    As Donziger Is Jailed for Fighting Chevron, Congress Calls for His Release

    Despite this, yesterday was a nightmare for Chevron and a victory for environmental justice

    Chevron thought it would get away with its crimes after Kaplan’s 2014 decision. But Donziger didn’t give up and neither did the people of Ecuador. Now they have a rapidly-growing international movement behind them not only calling for Donziger’s freedom but that the executives of Chevron should be on trial for their crimes. This was not Chevron’s...

    October 28, 2021
    6,569 views
    4 min read

    A New 100-Page Report Raises Alarm over Chevron’s Impact on Planet

    Mongabay | “It says horrible things about large companies, multi-national companies,” said environmental anthropologist Nan Greer in an interview. “It says that they can completely walk around international laws, national laws, the laws of their domicile.”

    October 28, 2021
    535 views
    4 min read

    We’re Ending Amazon Crude

    Human rights and environmental NGOs, alongside Indigenous organizations, are calling on all banks to Exit Amazon Oil and Gas immediately

    On November 1, climate activists and policy makers from all over the world will be convening at the 26th annual Conference of the Parties (COP) in Glasgow, Scotland to discuss global efforts to address the climate crisis.

    October 21, 2021
    3,831 views
    5 min read

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