2014 | Amazon Watch
Amazon Watch

All: 2014

The Amazon Oil Spills Overlooked by Environmental Leaders in Lima

As global environmental delegates gather in Peru for the UN climate talks, five oil spills in the country’s Amazon jungle are causing a hidden environmental disaster

The Guardian | Over the last few months – as Peru helped guide the United Nations climate negotiations – five separate oil spills along a main oil pipeline through the Amazon have spewed thick black clots of crude across jungle and swamp and carpeted local fishing lagoons with dead fish.

People Power for Climate Justice!

COP20 Lima and a call to action in 2015

Earlier this month, the world's eyes were on Lima as 196 nations debated what to do about climate change at the UN COP20 climate summit. While world leaders debated, negotiated, signed and didn't sign agreements, Amazon Watch and our allies sounded the alarm on the critical importance of the Amazon rainforest and indigenous ancestral territories...

Epic Chevron Battle Lands in Canadian Court

Oil giant asks Canadian Supreme Court to rewrite laws in attempt to avoid seizure of assets by Ecuadorian rainforest communities

This month's hearing before Canada's Supreme Court was Chevron's last appeal to try to stop a full enforcement trial. Chevron audaciously asked the court to ignore all precedent, and to change the law just for them.

Amazonian Tribe Take Initiative to Protect Their Lands from Dam Project

The Munduruku Indians are gaining support as they fight the Brazilian government to stop their territory being submerged

The Guardian | After years of waiting for the Brazilian government to sort out their land rights, the 13,000 Munduruku Indians, who live beside the Tapajós river in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, have decided to take action. Besides temporarily occupying an office belonging to Funai, the Brazilian government's Indian agency, they have started to...

Belo Monte, Brazil: The Tribes Living in the Shadow of a Megadam

Next year the Belo Monte dam will flood vast swathes of Amazon rainforest. Indian tribes living on the river have lost their fight to halt the project – now they await the floods that threaten their entire way of life

The Guardian | By the Great Bend of the Xingu river in the depths of Amazonia, the Juruna tribe is being drowned by what seems at first sight to be a flood of TV game-show prizes.

Amazon Watch is building on more than 25 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.

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Murder in the Rainforest

At the U.N.'s latest climate talks, indigenous tribes showed again that they're frontline allies in the climate fight. So why aren't we protecting them?

Rolling Stone | On the morning of December 5th, a dark piece of news began circulating at the U.N. climate talks in Lima: The body of José Isidro Tendetza Antún, a leading Ecuadorian indigenous-rights and anti-mining campaigner, had been found in a riverside grave near his village, his remains bound in rope, showing signs of beating and torture.

Indigenous Voices: A Call to Keep the Oil in the Ground

Huffington Post | I walk a small path, surrounded by an infinite number of trees, plants and the scent of flowers. My lungs fill with pure, fresh air when I take a deep breath. My bare feet touch the ground, damp from yesterday's rain. This is my home. This is where I grew up. This is what I want to share with my children one day.

Thousands of Marchers Demand Just Solution at UN Climate Talks in Lima

Indigenous peoples from the Andes to the Amazon joined trade unionists, students and women’s groups in demonstration in the Peruvian capital

The Guardian | From the Amazon to the Andes, thousands of activists marched through the streets of Lima on Wednesday to demand a just solution to climate change. The march through the traffic-choked streets put a human face on the United Nations climate negotiations, a process largely confined to suited bureaucrats working behind the high walls of a military...

Thousands in Lima March for Climate Justice!

Amazon Watch and indigenous allies joined thousands of marchers yesterday in defense of the rainforest and territorial rights and to demand that voices from the Amazon be heard at the United Nations COP20 climate negotiations.

Chevron Maneuvering to Block Ecuadorian Villagers from Enforcing $9.5 Billion Judgment in Canadian Courts

Supreme Court of Canada to Hear Arguments That Have Major Implications for Human Rights and Corporate Accountability

Ottawa, Canada – Trying to make good on its promise of a "lifetime of litigation" to avoid paying for a clean-up of Ecuador's rainforest, Chevron will ask the Supreme Court of Canada this week to create a new jurisdictional hurdle that likely would close off the country's courts to indigenous communities seeking to enforce their $9.5 billion...

COP20 Lima: Amazon Watch on Democracy Now!

"When we lose the Amazon, we not only create emissions, but we lose the climate stabilizing function of the forest," Amazon Watch founder Atossa Soltani told Democracy Now! at the "Women Leading Solutions on the Frontlines of Climate Change" event hosted by WECAN around the UNFCCC COP20 climate summit currently taking place in Lima, Peru. "We're...

Fracking, REDD, Lima Climate Talks...All Slammed at Nature Rights Tribunal

13 judges meet in Peru to hear accusations that the rights of “Mother Earth” are being violated

The Guardian | "[REDD gives] permits to pollute," Smithie told the Tribunal. "[It means] forests of the world acting as a sponge for northern industrial countries' pollution. They can pollute if they grab forests in the global south."

¡Amazonía Viva! Art and Action at COP20

Yesterday hundreds of indigenous peoples from communities across the Amazon joined together on a beach in Lima, Peru to create a massive "human banner" image to promote awareness about territorial rights for indigenous peoples in the global climate conversation. Beneath the heat of the sun and to the sound of beating drums, indigenous peoples and...

Ecuador Indigenous Leader Found Dead Days Before Planned Lima Protest

Shuar leader José Isidro Tendetza Antún missing since 28 NovemberActivists believe death linked to opposition to state-Chinese mine project

The Guardian | The body of an indigenous leader who was opposed to a major mining project in Ecuador has been found bound and buried, days before he planned to take his campaign to climate talks in Lima.

Indigenous Perspectives on Climate Change Revealed in Massive Art Action at COP20

Hundreds form massive "human banner" image citing importance of legal territorial rights for indigenous peoples in global climate conversation

Lima, Peru – Indigenous territorial rights must be guaranteed as an effective strategy to address climate change was the message of an enormous "human banner" image created on Agua Dulce beach today outside the UN COP20 climate summit.

Ecuador's Crackdown on Critics on Full Display as COP20 Climate Conference Begins

UPDATE: Yasunidos and Climate Caravan arrive in Lima!

A delegation from the environmental collective Yasunidos finally arrived to Lima, Peru today after a week of harassment and intimidation by Ecuadorian police and military that sought to prevent them from crossing the border to attend the COP20 climate conference, and thrust the Ecuadorian government's continued domestic crackdown on civil society...

¡Amazonia Viva! Amazon Watch at COP20

Together with our indigenous allies from the Amazon and NGO allies from the north and south, Amazon Watch is in Lima to highlight and expose major threats from a wave of egregious extractive and infrastructure projects planned for the Amazon.

After Years of Decline, Deforestation in the Amazon Might Be on the Rise Again

VICE News | "Brazil has been on a path of trying to bring down deforestation a lot," said Maira Irigaray, Brazil program coordinator for Amazon Watch. "But when it comes to the Amazon, those numbers are still huge." Amazon Watch and other groups say Brazil's decision to roll back laws limiting the clear cutting of forests been behind the rise in deforestation.

Indigenous Peoples to Create Giant Human Banner Artwork at COP20 Calling for Territorial Rights to Slow Climate Change

Amazonian and global indigenous peoples to form massive image in support of territorial rights as a key solution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and slowing climate change

Hundreds of indigenous people and supporters will form a gigantic "human banner" art work on the beach, creating an image symbolizing the important role of indigenous protection of the rainforest and natural resources.

Amazon Indigenous Land Loss Threatens Climate, Says Study

Scientists say destroying indigenous areas of the Amazon rainforest will have an irreversible impact on the atmosphere of the planet

BBC News | A new study said indigenous lands were "protected natural areas" accounting for 55% of the carbon stored in the Amazon basin. It said this land was at risk because governments had failed to recognize or enforce indigenous land rights.

Amazon Assembly Unifies Resistance to Dams on Brazil's Tapajós River

Historic gathering builds opposition to government's plans for new mega-dam complex

Santarém, Brazil – Tensions are building over the Brazilian government's polemic plans to circumvent the law in order to dam the Tapajós River. On November 27th, representatives of a diverse coalition of threatened indigenous peoples and other traditional communities assembled with religious leaders and activists to challenge a new Amazon...

Resistance and Hope on the Tapajós River

This week's "Caravan to Resist Dams in the Amazon" marked the largest political action ever staged in opposition to the Brazilian government's authoritarian march to dam the Tapajós River. Assembled on the banks of the majestic river, members the region's indigenous and traditional communities joined religious leaders and activists to stand as one...

Activists Join Indigenous People to Protest Construction of Amazon Mega-Dam

Greenpeace join the Munduruku to protest against the construction of a hydroelectric project on Tapajós River in Pará state

Greenpeace | Greenpeace activists joined the Munduruku deep in the Amazon rainforest to protest the construction of a major hydroelectric project. The group gathered at a beach on the banks of the Tapajos River and displayed a message in the sand that read "Free Tapajós". The beach is located near the waterfall of the "São Luiz do Tapajós" project, the first...

Peaceful Warriors: The Mundurukú Resist Dams With Strength and Art

Today some 60 Mundurukú people and 10 activists gathered at an island near the proposed São Luiz do Tapajós dam site in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, and performed an act of strength, dedication, and perseverance demonstrating their passion at any cost to save the Tapajós region.

Eye on Brazil: Tensions Escalate on the Tapajós River

The Brazilian government's decision to dam the Amazon's Tapajós River demonstrates a shocking disregard for the rights of the region's indigenous and traditional peoples. Tensions continue to escalate, with the Mundurukú people carrying out an "auto-demarcation" process of their land in defiance of the government's intentional deferral of the...

A Dam Revival, Despite Risks

Private Funding Brings a Boom in Hydropower, With High Costs

New York Times | While some dams in the United States and Europe are being decommissioned, a dam-building boom is underway in developing countries. It is a shift from the 1990s, when amid concerns about environmental impacts and displaced people, multilateral lenders like the World Bank backed away from large hydroelectric power projects.

Ecuador's Forest Partners Program

An
 Overview
 of
 Socio
 Bosque
 Contracts
 with
 Indigenous
 Communities

Though Socio Bosque has seen rapid growth in participation and amount of protected land since 2008, many concerns have been raised regarding the implementation of the current program and its future incorporation within a United Nations Convention on Climate Change REDD mechanism.

Peru Activist Killings Condemned Ahead of Climate Talks

AFP | At least 57 environmental activists have been murdered in Peru since 2002, a rights group said Monday, criticizing the killings as the country prepares to host major UN climate talks.

Climate Change and the Importance of Indigenous Peoples in Seeking Solutions

"Today we are living through a key moment in history when we need to take action, and we need to take action now. The drought in São Paulo, for example, is not happening by chance. Even if no one is talking about it, this problem is directly connected to the destruction of the Amazon, where I live, because the standing forest regulates the...