Events
Follow Amazon Watch in Vienna during UNTOC COP13 October 16–23.
Green Crime in the Amazon: Drugs, Deforestation, and the Question of Shared Responsibility
Including screening of award-winning documentary Charip: Lightning in the River
This panel frames the Amazon's crisis as a shared responsibility. Illegal mining, logging, land grabbing and wildlife trafficking are financed through the same networks as the global drug trade, with money flows reaching consumer markets in Europe. The discussion looks at the hidden financial and governance dynamics behind deforestation and puts Indigenous and community territorial governance at the centre of the response. A light lunch follows; RSVP required.
Organized by:
CEU Shattuck Center for Human Rights, Research Group Latin America at the University of Vienna and Amazon Watch; co-hosted by CEU's Department of Public Policy and Department of Gender Studies
Speakers:
Galois Flores Pizango, vice-president of the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampis Nation (2021–2026); Raphael Hoetmer, Program Director for the Western Amazon, Amazon Watch; Tanya Wyatt, UNODC Research and Trend Analysis Branch; Juan Diego Mora, research assistant, BOKU University. Moderator: Tyanif Rico Rodríguez, Assistant Professor of Gender Studies, CEU.
When:
Friday, October 16 at 12:30 pm
Where:
Central European University (QS), Auditorium · English
The Energy Transition and Organized Crime in the Amazon
UNTOC COP13 side event
Rising demand for the minerals that power clean technologies, together with persistently high gold prices, is opening a new mining frontier in the Amazon controlled or taxed by criminal networks. Drawing on Amazon Underworld's cross-border investigations, the panel shows how this mining converges with drug trafficking, land and timber trafficking and money laundering. It calls on States to treat traceable supply chains and territorial governance as security strategies in the proposed protocol on crimes that affect the environment.
Organized by:
Amazon Underworld, with the support of Amazon Watch and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC)
Speakers:
Bram Ebus, co-founder and co-director, Amazon Underworld; Mauricio Cabrera, technical expert; Sophia Pickles, GI-TOC.
When:
Tuesday, October 20 at 1:00 pm
Where:
Vienna International Centre
Diplomatic Lunch: Indigenous Leaders and Earth Defenders on the Frontlines of Organized Crime
Informal lunch roundtable · By invitation
Away from formal panels, this roundtable gives COP13 delegates, UNODC staff and civil society the chance to hear directly from Indigenous leaders and earth defenders. They speak about how organized crime and crimes that affect the environment are transforming their territories, and what Indigenous-led responses already look like. An open conversation with delegates follows, with an invitation to carry these realities into the COP13 negotiations.
Organized by:
Amazon Watch, GI-TOC, Global Witness and Indigenous organizations
Speakers:
Dr. Albert Barume, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; Ingry Mojanajinsoy, Inga people, Colombia; Marcelo Odicio, Kakataibo people, Peru; and earth defenders invited through GI-TOC.
When:
During UNTOC COP13 week from 2:00 to 3:00 pm
Where:
United Nations Vienna
State Strategies and Indigenous Peoples' Participation in Security and Anti-Crime Policies: Lessons from the Amazon
UNTOC COP13 side event
Organized crime in the Amazon is increasingly met with militarized State responses that endanger the communities best placed to confront it. Evidence shows that strong Indigenous governance and monitoring contain criminal economies more effectively than State security forces acting alone, yet Indigenous Peoples remain largely absent from UNTOC. Drawing on a new policy brief, the panel presents cases where State and Indigenous strategies have complemented each other and proposes ways for Indigenous Peoples to take part in future UNTOC instruments.
Organized by:
Amazon Watch with GI-TOC, Amazon Underworld, ACIMVIP and AIDESEP, with the support of the crimealliance.org network; sponsored by Brazil and Peru
Speakers:
Dr. Albert Barume, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; Bram Ebus, Amazon Underworld; Patricia Gualinga, Kichwa People of Sarayaku; Francisco Da Silva Piyako, Ashaninka people, Brazil; Miguel Guimaraes, Shipibo People, Peru; and GI-TOC's extractives team.
When:
Wednesday, October 21 from 2:00 to 2:50 pm
Where:
Vienna International Centre, room MOE07
Between Extractivisms, Militarization and the Living Forest: Perspectives and Lessons on Socio-Ecological Transformations from the Amazon
Public lecture
Illegal gold mining, drug trafficking and timber smuggling are expanding in the Amazon as a new layer of historical extractivism, while militarization deepens in the name of the "war on narco-terrorism" and the climate crisis hits forests and their peoples. The lecture presents the Kawsak Sacha (Living Forest) vision of the Kichwa People of Sarayaku as a concrete alternative to extractivist development, and challenges dominant security paradigms from a perspective of socio-ecological justice. It asks what the Amazon can teach us about socio-ecological transformation.
Organized by:
Lecture series "Challenges for Socio-Ecological Transformations", University of Vienna
Speakers:
Patricia Gualinga, Kichwa People of Sarayaku, Ecuador, defender of human rights, women's rights and nature and member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues; Raphael Hoetmer, Director of the Western Amazon Program at Amazon Watch and associate of the Transnational Institute.
When:
Wednesday, October 21 from 4:45 to 6:15 pm
Where:
NIG, University of Vienna
Territories in Resistance: Indigenous Peoples Facing Extractivism, the Climate Crisis and Militarization
Public conversation
Outside the time limits of the COP13 halls, this open evening invites Vienna's civil society, environmental activists and Latin American diaspora to an unhurried conversation with Indigenous leaders from across the Amazon. They speak about the spread of mining, coca and oil onto their lands, the impact of militarized State responses, and how Indigenous Peoples provide non-militarized security for their territories.
Organized by:
Amazon Watch
Speakers:
Francisco Da Silva Piyako, Ashaninka people, Brazil; Ingry Mojanajinsoy, Inga people, Colombia; Segundo Pino, Kakataibo people; Bram Ebus, investigative journalist. Moderator: Sofía Jarrín, Amazon Watch.
When:
Wednesday, October 21 at 6:00 pm (time to be confirmed)
Where:
Venue to be announced · Spanish, with English interpretation
Towards a New UNTOC Protocol on Crimes that Affect the Environment
UNTOC COP13 side event
At COP13, a resolution will be tabled to launch negotiations on a new UNTOC protocol covering wildlife and timber trafficking, illegal mining and trafficking of minerals and precious metals, and waste trafficking. This side event looks at how that momentum was built, the legal, operational and political priorities for an effective protocol, and the Ad Hoc Committee that would negotiate it. It encourages delegations to support the draft resolution.
Organized by:
International Council of Environmental Law (ICEL), with Brazil, ADM Capital Foundation, Alliance of NGOs on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, Amazon Underworld, Amazon Watch, Association of Zoos and Aquariums, Born Free Foundation, Environmental Investigation Agency, Freeland, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, Global Initiative to End Wildlife Crime, ICCF Group, Instituto Igarapé, The Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales, Wildlife Conservation Society, Wildlife Justice Commission, World Resources Institute and World Travel & Tourism Council
Speakers:
John E. Scanlon AO, Executive President, ICEL (moderator); Carlos Sánchez del Águila, Minister Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Peru; Nicolas Karges, Permanent Mission of France; Juliana Ferreira, Executive Director, Freeland Brasil; representatives of source States, Brazilian civil society and Brazil.
When:
Friday, October 23 at 3:00 pm
Where:
Vienna International Centre and online via Zoom