Belo Sun's executives have repeatedly and publicly downplayed the social, environmental, and legal risks of the Volta Grande Project, thereby heightening risks for current and potential investors.
December 2022
4,698 views
2 min read
Mining and International Investors Threaten Indigenous Rights and the Amazon
The Business Case for Indigenous Rights
Companies must account for Indigenous peoples’ human and land rights to understand and address business and climate risks
Stanford Social Innovation Review | As the effects of climate change worsen and concern grows, financial regulators are turning their attention to how companies report on climate-related risks. One crucial factor that businesses and investors may overlook is Indigenous and tribal peoples’ rights.
Summer 2022
1,276 views
21 min read
Illegal Miners Terrorize Brazil’s Yanomami Communities
The Bolsonaro regime stands by despite murder and sexual assault
The Yanomami’s Hutukara Association has declared a humanitarian crisis in the wake of the reported rape and killing of a 12-year-old Yanomami girl by miners, the disappearance of a 3-year-old child, and attacks on the Yanomami’s Aracaçá village that have placed the Amazonian community “on the verge of disappearance” because of violence caused by...
May 19, 2022
6,805 views
4 min read
Massive Belo Sun Gold Mine Project Blocked in Brazil
Indigenous and traditional communities celebrate as courts hand big loss to the Canadian mining company
The ruling is the result of sustained efforts by civil society and institutional allies to prevent the installation of Belo Sun's massive gold mine and to seek redress for the illegal acts committed in the course of the project's environmental licensing process.
April 28, 2022
4,311 views
5 min read
Indigenous Earth Defenders Under Threat
Reflections on Human Rights and Hope from COP27
After two weeks in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt for the Climate COP27 (The United Nations Conference of Parties on Climate Change), I’m reflecting on our purpose in attending and the outcomes.
December 3, 2022
1,345 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
1,268 views
4 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
4,309 views
4 min read
The Disappearance of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips Demonstrates the Impunity Granted to Illicit Activities Under Bolsonaro
The heartbreaking disappearance of Brazilian Indigenous rights advocate Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips has once again revealed that under Bolsonaro the Amazon has been handed over to illicit networks and industries.
June 14, 2022
7,964 views
3 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
1,727 views
4 min read
International Financial Institutions Are Fanning the Flames in the Amazon
Executives Refuse to Address Vanguard’s Complicity in Amazon Destruction
A Peruvian delegation of Indigenous and fishing community leaders came to the U.S. to share their first-hand account of Petroperú's impacts on their livelihoods
A Peruvian delegation of Indigenous leaders and fishing communities is in the United States right now, confronting investors on their rights to live free from the devastation caused by the oil company the investors are bankrolling, Petroperú.
November 17, 2022
1,225 views
3 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
5,375 views
2 min read
Carbon Offset Briefer: A LEAF Out of an Old Book
New report illustrates how the LEAF Coalition enables carbon market colonialism
Carbon offsets are false solutions to the climate crisis, do not address the root causes of deforestation, and often cause conflict within and harm to Indigenous communities.
June 6, 2022
1,746 views
2 min read
What Are Carbon Offset Markets Selling? Not Solutions to Amazon Destruction
The world’s most notorious corporate greenwashers are once again targeting the rainforest to avoid actually reducing emissions
Corporate polluters have used offsets as an excuse to keep emitting, but there’s little evidence that offsets are actually slowing climate change. What’s more, offset programs have enabled land-grabbing and violations of Indigenous rights in the Amazon.
March 10, 2022
2,067 views
3 min read
Recent Reports
The Risks of Investing in Belo Sun
Belo Sun's executives have repeatedly and publicly downplayed the social, environmental, and legal risks of the Volta Grande Project, thereby heightening risks for current and potential investors.
December 2022
4,698 views
2 min read
Amazon in Focus 2022
The Amazon rainforest, its defenders, and our global climate are in a state of emergency. It is critical that we work together to amplify the boldest calls and most ambitious commitments to protect 80 percent of the Amazon by 2025 and avert further climate chaos. We can do it if we take urgent action now!
Fall 2022
1,937 views
2 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
6,017 views
3 min read
More News on Indigenous Rights, the Amazon, and Our Global Climate Crisis
Movement Against Belo Sun Gains Momentum in Canada
With allies in power, including Environmental Minister Marina Silva and Indigenous Peoples' Minister Sonia Guajajara, what opportunities are now available to halt mining in the Amazon?
We count on the positive energy and mobilization of our supporters so that, together with our partners on the ground in Canada and our allies in the new Brazilian government, we can evaluate and expose the climatic risks of destroying an ecosystem as critical as that of the Volta Grande do Xingu, still threatened by Canadian mining company Belo...
January 17, 2023
4,603 views
4 min read
The Massacre in Peru Must Be Stopped!
The violence unleashed by the government of Dina Boluarte is aimed primarily at Indigenous peoples and campesinos in the south of the country and has already claimed over 40 lives
Over the last few weeks, Peru has been going through an unprecedented political and social conflict that has already resulted in more than 40 deaths.
January 12, 2023
3,038 views
6 min read
How We’re Ending Amazon Crude in 2023!
Indigenous movements are gaining political, judicial, and legislative victories setting the stage for keeping oil in the ground this year
There are several reasons to be optimistic about building momentum to further restrict plans to expand oil extraction in its Amazon and keep fossil fuels permanently in the ground, and Ecuador is a great example.
January 10, 2023
679 views
5 min read
Brazil at a Turning Point: “Never Again Without Us!”
Brazil's Indigenous peoples take back the right to decide over their lives and territories under the Lula government
For the first time, a government has put Indigenous peoples at the center, recognizing their ancestral right to decide over their lives and territories.
January 5, 2023
3,900 views
4 min read
Major U.N. Biodiversity Deal Recognizes Indigenous Rights but Lacks Critical Enforcement Measures
Democracy Now! | The landmark agreement seeks to halt the Earth’s sixth major mass extinction event, and Indigenous communities will have an increased role in protecting wildlife as part of the deal.
December 21, 2022
150 views
1 min read
Amazon Watch at COP15 in Defense of Biodiversity and Indigenous Rights!
Canadian mining company Belo Sun’s stock took a major hit as our new report exposed major risks to investors during COP
Indigenous communities are uniquely qualified to speak on the intersections between mining and biodiversity: Indigenous lands make up around 20% of the Earth’s territory, containing 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity, requiring Indigenous peoples to be at the forefront of all decision-making regarding any global climate commitments.
December 15, 2022
4,550 views
6 min read
Canadian Gold Miner Belo Sun Accused of Misleading Investors
Environmental advocate: "No investor should even think of touching this company"
Financial Post | “We are putting any institution or company looking to invest in or acquire Belo Sun on notice: this is a bad actor selling a dangerous project. Anyone looking to get involved with it will be shouldering serious risk and will be complicit in the continued threats to the Amazon rainforest, Indigenous and traditional peoples, and the global climate.”
December 14, 2022
304 views
7 min read
A Powerful Beacon of Hope in the Colombian Amazon
The Siona of Buenavista are a beacon of resistance against incursions of oil companies like GeoPark and narco-mafias into their territories. Solidarity from Colombian and international allies can be crucial to their success.
December 8, 2022
1,926 views
3 min read
Weaving a Tapestry of Direct Actions Toward New Horizons, Through Solidarity Grants
The activist-led Amazon Defenders Fund (ADF) forges a bond of solidarity between Amazon Watch and our Amazonian partners and allies, and contributes to the woven tapestry of direct actions in their territories.
November 29, 2022
471 views
4 min read
A People’s Referendum Could Stop Drilling in Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park
Defenders of Yasuní National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon, one of the most biologically diverse places on the planet, have two new reasons to hope that oil drilling in the region could be imminently curtailed.
October 12, 2022
4,082 views
3 min read
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
1,310 views
5 min read
Pluspetrol Norte: A History of Unpaid Sanctions and Oil Spills in the Peruvian Amazon
Mongabay | “The situation never improves; all the companies have had spills from OXY, Pluspetrol, and Petroperu. The pipes are decayed; they’ve been installed for years, and for that reason, [the land] is constantly being polluted.”
September 30, 2022
391 views
13 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
1,081 views
5 min read
Ecuador Defends the Rights of Its People and Rejects Another Chevron Scheme!
Several days ago we asked you to take urgent action to tell the government of Ecuador to hold Chevron accountable for its deliberate Amazon pollution, before a legal deadline. Great news: it did!
September 28, 2022
1,790 views
3 min read
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
3,872 views
1 min read
The Voices of Amazonian Peoples Led This Year’s Pan-Amazon Social Forum
The forum strongly condemned the so-called development paradigm, in which governments and large corporations are complicit in destruction with projects that privatize profits and socialize losses over Amazonian peoples and territories.
September 7, 2022
981 views
4 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
1,697 views
8 min read
Amazonía Against the Clock: A Regional Assessment on Where and How to Protect 80% by 2025
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
3,482 views
6 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
1,859 views
5 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
1,342 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
1,737 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
1,802 views
4 min read
Ecuadorian Indigenous Movement Secures Economic and Climate Justice Victories, Ending National Strike
Indigenous leaders and the Ecuadorian government reached an agreement including a repeal of Executive Decree 95 on oil and gas and reform of decree 151 affecting the mining sector, among other demands. Both decrees had authorized the government to expand the extractive frontier into Indigenous territories and important conservation and forest...
June 30, 2022
2,780 views
5 min read
Citi: Still Financing Indigenous Rights Violations and Biodiversity Loss in the Amazon
Citi’s financial support to the Ecuadorian government is directly linked to oil drilling on and near Indigenous territories in the Amazon, where community leaders have repeatedly voiced opposition to such projects.
June 29, 2022
1,093 views
4 min read
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