Altamira, Brazil – Some 150 indigenous people affected by the construction of the Belo Monte dam complex in the Brazilian Amazon occupied one of the project's principle work camps yesterday, halting construction activities on a section of the world's third largest dam.
All: 2013
Amazon in Focus 2013
Plus Our Annual Financial Report for 2012
2013 follows a remarkable year for Amazon Watch and our partners in 2012: Talisman Energy and Conoco Phillips announced they would cease oil operations and leave the Peruvian Amazon; Belo Monte dam construction was significantly delayed in Brazil; and we celebrated the landmark decision of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) in favor...
Brazil Prosecutors Issue Warning on Belo Sun Gold Project
The Wall Street Journal | Rio De Janeiro, Brazil – Brazilian federal prosecutors issued a warning Wednesday that they could seek to block licensing for the country's largest gold-mining project because Canada's Belo Sun Mining Corp. hasn't produced a study explaining its impact on local indigenous communities.
Indigenous Rights Controversies Around Belo Monte Consume Brazilian Judicial System
Dam license could be suspended due to violations of social and environmental conditions
Altamira, Brazil – Recent lawsuits by Brazil's Federal Public Prosecutors concerning the Belo Monte dam are demanding accountability from the dam-building Norte Energia consortium, Brazil's National Development Bank, and the state environmental agency IBAMA for noncompliance with mandated mitigation measures concerning the Juruna and Xikrin...
Voices of the Xingu: A Fisherman's Story
"This wound no longer heals because it is a very deep wound. There is no healing being done for nature, or for our minds. Whoever thinks that Belo Monte is a good project, it is because they do not know this place and have not suffered."
Amazon Watch is building on more than 25 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.
Damage Control in Ecuador
It has been a tumultuous few weeks in Ecuador since President Correa's decision to terminate the historic Yasuní-ITT initiative. Faced with ongoing unrest, he has unleashed a barrage of ads and TV spots aimed at convincing the public to support his plan to drill in the park.
Judge Allows Chevron Additional Access to Email Usage Information of Activists, Lawyers
EarthRights International | Despite well-established case law recognizing the right to anonymous speech on the Internet, he held that online speakers forever waive their right to anonymity simply by using an email address.
Sex Trafficking Ringmaster Busted on Belo Monte
International Rivers | Police in Brazil have arrested two leaders of a sex trafficking ring that sent adolescent girls and transvestites, some as young as 16, to prostitute themselves to the workers building the Belo Monte Dam.
Vigil to Preserve Yasuní-ITT
The vast majority of Ecuadorians want to preserve Yasuní-ITT, and many of them held a vigil in front of the Presidential Palace to show their support for the plan.
Rights and Responsibility: The Failure of Yasuní-ITT and What it Means for Ecuador’s Indigenous Peoples
In the wake of President Correa's decision to terminate the historic Yasuní-ITT initiative the big question has been: Who is to blame for the initiative's failure?
Race to Save Ecuador's Yasuní National Park from Oil Lobby
Green groups campaign for a petition to force a national referendum to block president's unilateral sanction for drilling
The Guardian | The fate of one of the hotspots of global diversity is hanging by a thread as conservation and indigenous groups in Ecuador race to raise a petition of over half a million names which would force a national referendum on whether foreign oil companies be allowed into the Yasuní national park.
Ecuador Stops Protecting Its Rainforest – to Pay Off Debt to China
President Rafael Correa's decision reflects just how reliant his country is on Beijing as a source of loans
The Atlantic | When a poor nation finds a massive oil reserve beneath a rainforest with more species per hectare than in all of North America, it makes for a nettlesome problem. When you add in a huge amount of debt to resource-hungry China, it makes for an environmental catastrophe.
Another State of Environmental Emergency in the Peruvian Amazon?
Alianza Arkana Blog | The situation in the Corrientes is not new, and well-documented, as FECONACO noted: "since the 80s, studies in the region have shown the effects of contamination in fish, waters, and even the public health in communities."
Ecuador Says It Will Launch Controversial Drilling in Amazon Park
Science Magazine | Researchers consider the nearly 10,000 square kilometers of land within Ecuador’s Yasuni National Park to be one of the world’s richest biological hotspots. Yasuni is also the territory of the Waorani indigenous people and two nomadic Waorani clans who live in voluntary isolation.
Oil Is Not Life in the Amazon
The Failure of Yasuní-ITT and the Story of Rumipamba
In many ways, Yasuní-ITT was doomed from the beginning by the world's greed for oil and Ecuador's economic dependence on that greed. But enough with the political analysis. What is most upsetting to me about ITT's failure are its implications for human life.
Ecuador Scraps Plan to Block Rain Forest Oil Drilling
Idea had been hailed as a revolutionary way to combat climate change.
National Geographic | The decision by Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa to abandon a plan to spare the species-rich Yasuní rain forest in eastern Ecuador from oil development has dashed hopes for what environmentalists had hailed as a historic approach to weaning industrial society from its dependence on fossil fuels.
Plan to Ban Oil Drilling in Amazon Is Dropped
New York Times | "It could have been used as a model for other sensitive areas," said Matt Finer, a scientist with the Center for International Environmental Law, referring to the fund. "But now that it has failed, there is really no alternative model that is attractive to governments unable or unwilling to forgo drilling solely on ecological grounds."
Ecuador President Pulls Plug on Innovative Yasuni-ITT Initiative
Indigenous groups and civil society vow resistance
Quito, Ecuador – In an evening address to the nation on Thursday, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa officially terminated the historic Yasuni-ITT proposal, and announced that PetroAmazonas, the state run oil company, would initiate plans to exploit the Ishpingo, Tambococha, and Tiputini oil fields that lie beneath the eastern part of Yasuni...
Ecuador Approves Yasuni National Park Oil Drilling in Amazon Rainforest
Environmentalists devastated as president blames lack of foreign support for collapse of pioneering conservation plan
The Guardian | President Correa said it would affect less that 1% of the park, but the termination of the conservation initiative has stirred up fury among environmentalists and is likely to upset the population at large. Polls show that between 78% and 90% of Ecuadoreans are opposed to drilling in this sensitive region.
Peru's Culture Ministry Supports Amazon Reserves
Ministry backs proposals for reserves for indigenous peoples, but they would overlap with hydrocarbon concessions
The Guardian | Peru's Vice-Ministry of Inter-Culturality is officially supporting proposals to establish five reserves for indigenous peoples living in "voluntary isolation" in the Amazon rainforest totaling almost four million hectares.
How Many Times Can Peru Ignore the UN?
Huffington Post | Many around the world will be aware that today, August 9, is the United Nations' International Day of the World's Indigenous People, but how often do governments actually heed what the UN has to say about such people?
Peruvian Ministers Resign over Amazon Gas Project
Survival International | The plan to expand the existing Camisea gas project, which is within the Nahua-Nanti Reserve for uncontacted tribes, has been widely condemned, and in March the UN called for its 'immediate suspension'.
Indigenous Rights Under Assault in Brazil
How can the Brazilian government justify forcing its native peoples, who were subject to centuries of injustice and genocidal abuse, to continue enduring the brunt of the country's uncontrolled economic expansion against their will?
Voices of the Xingu
Since late June protests across Brazil have not stopped. The voices of people calling for Justice Now! and a halt to construction of the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu River continue to be silenced and ignored. It's time that the voices of the Xingu are heard!
Nahua Say No to Gas Consortium in Their Territory
Huffington Post | Members of the Nahua people living within a reserve for indigenous peoples in "initial contact" and "voluntary isolation" in the Peruvian Amazon say they will refuse to allow a gas consortium led by Pluspetrol to operate in their territory.
Belo Monte Risks Paralyzation Over Consortium’s Grave Negligence
By disregarding a series of "conditionalities" upon which the project's environmental license was granted, Norte Energia could be sanctioned, forcing the dam's construction to again grind to a halt.
Peru's Culture Ministry Blocks Expansion of Camisea Gas Project in The Amazon
Peru's Vice-Ministry of Inter-Culturality has issued a critical report temporarily blocking the expansion of Peru's biggest gas project and claiming that two "isolated" indigenous peoples living in the region could be made extinct if it goes ahead.
Amazon Justice: Sarayaku's Historic Week
While the apology and right to no repetition is still pending, the state's transfer of funds is certainly historic in Ecuador – no government has been forced to hand over that kind of money to an indigenous group.
From Brazil, European Greens Condemn Belo Monte
"A project as big as Belo Monte cannot be constructed on a provisional legal basis and by the logic of fait accompli. The Supreme Court is currently shutting up judicial rulings on the basis of a law stemming from dictatorial times."
