The impeachment of former president Dilma Rousseff, coup or not, represents a fundamental realigning of modern Brazil. For some in the country, the crisis is an opportunity. These politicians and businessmen are now exploiting the upheaval to roll-back environmental laws and get their hands on the vast natural resources found in protected regions...
From deep inside the most biodiverse part of Earth's largest rainforest, there is terrible news: Oil extraction has begun in quite possibly the worst place imaginable.
Some of Canada's largest environmental, labor and civil society organizations have now joined the growing international community demanding that Chevron clean up its toxic waste in the Ecuadorian Amazon and cease selling its assets in Canada while a debt collection action proceeds to force the company to comply with its US $10 billion liability to...
Tomorrow, Ecuadorian state oil company Petroamazonas will produce the first barrel of commercial crude from the ITT fields that lie beneath Yasuní National Park, an area that some scientists have called the most biodiverse rainforest on Earth.
A judge in Brazil's Amazonian state of Para suspended the operating license of the controversial Belo Monte hydroelectric dam on the Xingu River for failing to provide required water and sewage services to local communities.
With the recent centennial of the National Park Service, we've seen much publicity in favor of national parks within the United States. The idea of natural protected areas is viewed as a general good among popular opinion. Who could be opposed to the conservation of nature?
A delegation of 25 powerful indigenous leaders from around the world will attend the quadrennial IUCN World Conservation Congress (WCC) in Honolulu, Hawai'i, from September 1 to 10. The WCC is the world's largest recurring conservation event attended by government, corporate, nonprofit and academic leaders, among its many influencers.
The bloody confrontation occurred at a remote, scrubby expanse called Devil's Curve, where the Andean foothills meet the Amazon jungle. A bitter turning-point in modern Peru, it became known as the Baguazo after the nearby town of Bagua.
Last week, in a stunning turn of events, Brazil's environmental agency IBAMA definitively shelved plans to carve the São Luiz do Tapajós mega-dam into the heart of the Amazon. Deeming the project a socio-environmental liability for its devastating impacts upon the lands and way of life of the Munduruku people, IBAMA's bold move could reflect a...
Amazon Watch is extremely disappointed by the decision of the 2nd Circuit Appeals court to uphold Chevron's RICO SLAPP suit filed in retaliation for the unprecedented victory of contaminated Ecuadorian communities over Chevron in Ecuador.
Indigenous people living in Brazil's rainforest have welcomed a decision by the national environment agency to cancel a proposed mega-dam in the Amazon which they say would have displaced communities while opening the sensitive region to logging.
Christian Poirier of Amazon Watch said: "We have been awaiting such a welcome announcement from the Brazilian government for more than a decade, while witnessing the tragic and unnecessary damming of the Madeira and Xingu rivers during this time."
Brasilia, Brazil – Brazil's Federal Environmental Agency announced the cancellation of licensing for the polemic São Luiz do Tapajós mega-dam, the largest hydroelectric project planned for the Amazon.
For decades, the U'wa indigenous people of Colombia have been an inspiration to others around the world, including everyone at Amazon Watch. With vision, persistence and courage, they have repeatedly demanded their rights and overcome the daunting forces arrayed against them.
By entering and occupying the actual Gibraltar gas extraction site, the U'wa are taking their nonviolent direct action to a new level, even given the risks they run.
Accompany Nina Gualinga, an indigenous youth from the Kichwa community of Sarayaku as she tours former oil fields of Chevron and gets an up close look at one of the worst oil disasters on the planet.
Last week's indigenous mobilization in Brasilia – detailed in the following blog from the Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA) – came as a response to the current, alarming and mounting assault on the rights of Brazil's indigenous peoples. The Brasilia protest articulated an appeal from indigenous leadership to national governments via their...
"Somehow virtually none of the profits generated by the oil industry over decades is available to ensure that Amazonian communities don't have to watch their primary sources of livelihoods – the river, the forest – become irrevocably polluted by spills," said Andrew Miller of Amazon Watch.
A new oil spill from the pipeline that carries crude oil from the northern Peruvian Amazon across the Andes Mountains to the Pacific coast has raised fears of yet more pollution of the water and fish on which indigenous villages and riverside communities depend.
Chevron sending up massive flares in Richmond is not the only sign things are getting hot for the oil giant on the run from a $11 billion verdict.
Ecuador is desperate to drill because it owes China billions as part of loan deals between the two countries that have Ecuador handing over much of its oil to China through 2024. The oil price crash has also exacerbated the issue, forcing Ecuador to deliver twice or three times the amount of crude to pay off the debt. Sound like a bad deal? It is...
Itaituba, Brazil – Today, Munduruku representatives and Greenpeace volunteers started a community-led effort to establish the boundaries of an Indigenous land in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon with the aim of protecting traditional areas. These particular lands are threatened by the controversial proposed São Luiz do Tapajós mega dam...
"The sorry, declining state of indigenous health and community sanitation structures in the Lower Urubamba is simply not acceptable given the wealth that Camisea has generated in all sectors of the Peruvian economy, and the hundreds of millions of dollars that have entered local and regional government's coffers over the past 10 years," the report...
Amazonia's surge in hydropower development threatens numerous species with extinction and puts unique habitats at risk, warns a recent study.
Renewed attempts by top lawmakers to remove environmental licensing requirements for "strategic" development projects in Brazil have been stalled. Controversial schemes include stalled plans for the São Luiz do Tapajós hydroelectric complex – which critics warn could infringe on indigenous lands, destroy local biodiversity and trigger...
"This is an epic fight for justice and Chevron management is living in denial if it thinks we will ever go away until justice is served," said Paul Paz y Miño of Amazon Watch.
"Mr. Watson, stop your racism against us," said Secoya leader Humberto Piaguaje. "We are neither manipulated nor will we ever be manipulated by lawyers or anyone else, as you continually repeat. We are intelligent enough to think and act for ourselves and to seek justice."
After six years as Chevron CEO and Chair of the Board John Watson has been unable to resolve major shareholder unrest over his leadership. In one of its strongest rebukes to date, thirty percent of Chevron shareholders representing $57.6 billion of assets under management sent a clear message to Watson and his team on the Ecuador issue: your...
A coalition of local, national and international environmental and human rights rights organizations once again demand that Chevron Corp be held to account over its environmental and human rights abuses in the Amazon rainforest, at its Richmond refinery, and everywhere the corporation operates.
