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Amazon Watch

Eye on the Amazon

Indigenous “Headdress Caucus” Headed to Brazil’s Congress in Crucial and Precarious Election

Brazilian Indigenous leaders Sonia Guajajara and Célia Xakriabá were elected to the lower house of Congress while former president Lula da Silva won 48% of the vote, forcing a runoff with President Bolsonaro at the end of the month

While Brazil's presidential contest forced a runoff vote scheduled for the end of October, the election saw the historic victory of members of Brazil’s Indigenous "headdress" caucus in São Paulo and the state of Minas Gerais, in a momentous advance for Indigenous representation in the lower house of the National Congress of Brazil.

Victory: Corporations Behind Climate Week Exposed for Ties to Amazon Destruction

Thousands of Indigenous, frontline, and community activists gathered at NYC Climate Week demanding climate justice

After years of virtual events, Climate Week 2022 coincided with the gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly, bringing thousands to New York City to hold leaders accountable for the escalating climate crisis and making the presence of Indigenous peoples more important than ever.

Recent Reports

Blood Gold: Complicity in Destruction V

How the world’s most high-valued companies in technology, electronics, and electric cars may be buying gold extracted illegally from indigenous territories in the Brazilian Amazon

Gold is used in electrical connections and circuit boards for a multitude of electronic products, including cell phones, laptop and desktop computers, the servers of tech giants, and in electric cars. Research has shown that upwards of 47% of Brazil’s gold exports could be of illegal origin.

The Risks of Investing in Petroperú

This risk assessment describes the political, social, financial, environmental, and legal risks associated with investing in Petroperú. It also compiles the perspective of some communities that could be affected by the threat of oil operations by Petroperú, in particular, the Achuar People of the Pastaza River and the Autonomous Territorial...

Amazonía Against the Clock

A groundbreaking report organized by COICA and Stand.earth with research conducted by RAISG presents new data on deforestation and reaffirms the critical role of Indigenous peoples in protecting 80% of the Amazon by 2025

The Amazon is in the midst of a tipping point crisis as deforestation and high degradation combined have already reached 26% of the region. However, preserving 80% of the Amazon by 2025 is still possible.

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

Ecuador Declares Temporary Moratorium on New Oil and Mining Concessions

Ecuador’s Indigenous movement and the government of Guillermo Lasso have agreed to a temporary moratorium on all new oil and mining concessions. This major development puts the country’s plans to double oil production and significantly boost mining investment in question.

Vanguard Funds Indigenous Rights Violations in Peru’s Amazon

Asset manager Vanguard must stop investing in Indigenous rights violations and environmental destruction

The Achuar and Wampis have good reason to oppose further oil extraction: The Northern Peruvian Oil Pipeline, which runs through their territories, has repeatedly ruptured, causing countless spills and constant threats to the environment and safety of their communities.

Sarayaku’s Kawsak Sacha Is What the World Needs Now!

The Kawsak Sacha proposal aims to sustainably preserve and conserve territorial spaces, the material and spiritual relationship established there by native peoples with the living forest and the beings that inhabit it.

Oil in the Peruvian Amazon: Obscene Profits Through Immoral Strategies

Legal attacks against the protections for isolated Indigenous peoples and Peru’s FPIC law are examples of how the oil lobby keeps the current legal framework – the product of years of struggle by Indigenous movements and civil society – under constant siege.

Set Ablaze at Record Levels Again, the Amazon Cannot Survive Another Bolsonaro Term

Since 2019, the Brazilian Amazon has seen record-breaking levels of fires and destruction. Under the Bolsonaro administration, the levels of destruction have skyrocketed and continue to worsen each year as his rhetoric and policies encourage land grabbing, destruction, and violence against Indigenous peoples. This crisis is not only a threat to...

Indigenous Lawyer from the Brazilian Amazon Builds Solidarity and Support in DC

Following increased violence and the murders of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira in Brazil, attorney Eliesio Marubo travels to the U.S. to demand justice

“The problems in our region are not new but the violence has escalated to unprecedented levels because under Bolsonaro, illegal operations have gone unpunished.”

From Local to Global: Peruvian Earth Defenders Confront Deutsche Bank in Germany

Delegation of Indigenous leaders from the Amazon built networks of support and solidarity in the movement against oil expansion in the Amazon

The Wampis and Achuar nations will not permit oil production on Block 64, and they have launched an international campaign to make it clear to anyone who still thinks it might be a good investment to attempt to extract oil from their territories.

Is Vanguard Sinking the Climate Ship?

Asset manager Vanguard is a major investor in some of the mining and oil companies that are causing irreparable harm to the Amazon rainforest and to Indigenous peoples. Vanguard is not only financing destruction and rights violations in the Amazon, but it is financing climate catastrophe throughout the world.

“Coloring” Brazil’s Indigenous Movement

Indigenous LGBTQ+ community in Brazil claims their space at this year’s Free Land Camp

Visibility as a means towards empowerment. That is one of the goals that the Indigenous LGBTQ+ movement in Brazil strives for as they brought their agenda to the center stage of the Free Land Camp this year.