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

    Amazon Watch
    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.

    October 6, 2022
    795 views
    5 min read

    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.

    September 29, 2022
    753 views
    5 min read

    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.

    September 2022
    3,344 views
    1 min read

    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...

    September 2022
    3,399 views
    3 min read

    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.

    September 2022
    2,093 views
    6 min read

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

    First-Ever Regional Court Case Involving Rights of Uncontacted Peoples Awaits Verdict

    The Inter-American Court of Human rights is evaluating the first-ever case concerning the rights of Indigenous communities in voluntary isolation

    Mongabay | In the case Tagaeri & Taromenane Indigenous people vs the Ecuadorian state, lawyers representing the communities in voluntary isolation say the Ecuadorian state has failed to protect these populations and propelled the extractive industry in the area, putting pressure on the rainforest and increasing conflict between local communities.

    October 13, 2022
    132 views
    7 min read

    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.

    September 13, 2022
    2,632 views
    4 min read

    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.

    September 9, 2022
    4,630 views
    2 min read

    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.

    Fall 2022
    1,147 views
    8 min read

    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.

    August 30, 2022
    1,384 views
    8 min read

    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...

    August 23, 2022
    1,611 views
    5 min read

    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.”

    August 4, 2022
    1,029 views
    4 min read

    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.

    August 1, 2022
    1,152 views
    4 min read

    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.

    July 12, 2022
    1,545 views
    2 min read

    “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.

    July 5, 2022
    1,567 views
    4 min read

    View more news »