The Economist | The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that Ecuador's government had ignored the rights of Sarayaku's residents when granting permission for an energy project – putting governments in the Americas on notice that big physical investments are not legal until the indigenous people they affect have had their say.
Amnesty International | A regional human rights court has come down in favour of the Sarayaku Indigenous community in the Ecuadorian Amazon in what Amnesty International has called a key victory for Indigenous Peoples.
Quito, Ecuador – The Inter-American Court has issued an unequivocal sentence in favor of the Kichwa indigenous community of Sarayaku, culminating an 8-year process that establishes new guidelines on the right to consultation of indigenous peoples.
Today the Inter-American Court of Human Rights declared that the Ecuadorian state is responsible under international law for the violation of the Sarayaku people's rights to prior consultation, communal property, life, judicial protection, and other important rights.
Altamira, Brazil – Three engineers employed by the company building the Belo Monte Dam were detained Tuesday by Juruna and Arara tribal authorities after the company failed to live up to promised mitigation measures aimed at reducing the dam's devastating impacts on local communities.
Foreign Policy | Delmi Morales Nosa never imagined she'd need her family's bow and arrow for anything other than hunting. But when construction started last year on a highway set to bisect her homeland, Bolivia's second-largest national park, she reconsidered.
The Observer | It can be difficult to summon up eco angst about a specific transgression 5,000 miles away, but the Belo Monte dam in Brazil is a special case.
Al Jazeera | Due to the remoteness of the regions that the Yawanawa and other tribes have called home for thousands of years, very little is known, even within Brazil, about their cultural heritage, their role as the "keepers of the Amazon" and how their existence is inextricably bound to the preservation of the forests and waterways of their land.
Yale Environment 360 | As the United Nations' Rio+20 conference on sustainable development takes place in Rio de Janeiro this month, a prime example of the environmental and social tensions that accompany development will be playing out in northern Brazil.
Climate & Capitalism | The UN Conference on Sustainable Development ended last week in what can only be described as failure. We face enormous environmental problems, but the Rio+20 response offers nothing but empty words; no timescales for action, no firm commitments.
Brazil's indigenous and environmental agencies are deciding whether to authorize the irrevocable diversion of the Xingu River. Join thousands of others in sending a message to FUNAI and IBAMA today.
Environment News Service | The Peruvian government must immediately halt violent repression of mining protesters, more than 80 environmental and human rights organizations demanded today.
San Francisco, CA – A group of over 30 California-based organizations yesterday sent a letter to Governor Brown urging him to reject the use of international forest carbon offsets credits in the state's cap and trade system.
Altamira, Brazil – Indigenous communities of the middle Xingu ended their occupation of the Belo Monte dam's main cofferdam following two days of talks with Norte Energia. The action brought a notable level of national and international visibility to their concerns over the project's impacts on their health, livelihoods and environment, and...
Altamira, Brazil – Indigenous leaders representing six tribes affected by the Belo Monte Dam complex along the Amazon's Xingu River sent a letter today to President Dilma Rousseff and other government authorities calling for immediate suspension of the controversial project's Installation License.
Scenes from the indigenous-led occupation of Pimental Island on the Xingu River. More than 300 people representing 21 indigenous villages and 9 different ethnicities are participting so far.
The indigenous-led occupation of the main Belo Monte dam construction site is a key battleground for the future of the entire Amazon rainforest. It is powerful to be here on the ground supporting indigenous peoples in amplifying their voices.
Latinamerica Press | As the world's largest rainforest, with the highest concentration of biodiversity and one of the largest freshwater reserves on the planet, the Amazon is at the center of the environmental debate in Brazil. That was no different at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development this year, also known as Rio+20.
Today was marked by the arrival of nearly 30 Parakana leaders. In all, 17 indigenous villages from six different ethnicities are currently represented at the occupation demanding that construction of the Belo Monte dam stop.
The New York Times | A confrontation between the insatiable appetite for energy and the enduring need for habitability is under way in Brazil as it moves aggressively to harness the power of its rivers with plans for dozens of hydroelectric dams.
The meeting with Norte Energia failed to reach any agreement. The Xikrin, the Arara and the Juruna of the Big Bend are still occupying the site, and we are calling for support to allow us to bring more of our people to join the occupation.
The indigenous occupation of the Belo Monte construction site entered its ninth day today. More indigenous people are reportedly joining the occupation each day, demanding that the construction stop.
Time | Belo Monte will be the world's third-largest hydroelectric project and will displace up to 20,000 people while diverting the Xingu River and flooding as much as 230 square miles of rainforest.
Al Jazeera | Work on part of a huge hydroelectric dam being built in the Brazilian Amazon has been halted by a tribal protest for an eighth day.
Imagine that your livelihood, community, and entire culture are facing imminent destruction from the Belo Monte dam. International bodies have repeatedly sounded the alarm, yet the project advances with the force of a thousand bulldozers. What do you do?
Altamira, Brazil – Brazilian social movements and civil society organizations are facing politically-motivated prosecutions for their lawful opposition to the Belo Monte dam complex in the heart of the Amazon.
Reuters | Ecuadorean plaintiffs have filed a second lawsuit outside the Andean country, this time in Brazil, in a bid to enforce an $18 billion court ruling against U.S. oil company Chevron for polluting the Amazon.
Brasilia, Brazil – Villagers from Ecuador's rainforest who won a landmark court judgment against Chevron for causing massive environmental and health damage filed suit Wednesday as a first step to seize the oil giant's assets in Brazil to generate funds to remove cancer-causing toxins and oil sludge from their ancestral homelands.
In the final days of the Rio+20 Earth Summit, several hundred indigenous people affected by the Belo Monte Dam began an occupation of the construction site. The occupation is gaining strength as more inhabitants join the blockade.
