2017 | Amazon Watch

Politics of Death: Land Conflict and Murder Go "Hand in Hand" in Brazil

"Since the government has slowed down the recognition of indigenous lands, communities have found themselves in direct conflict... with modernised agribusiness who are intent on using the land for soy or other monocultures."

June 23, 2017

1,305 views

4 min read

Amazon’s Forests Still Endangered Despite Brazilian President’s Vetoes of Environmental Protection Rollbacks

While the vetoes seemed a concession to demands from his Environmental Minister and a coalition of environmental and human rights organizations, they now appear to be mere greenwash of the government's anti-environment agenda and and an attempt distract the public from its alarming assault on the Amazon.

June 22, 2017

1,392 views

4 min read

Amazon Forest Endangered Despite Brazilian President’s Vetoes of Environmental Protection Reductions

In a letter denouncing the president for using the vetoes to obscure his intention to reduce forest protections through other means, a group of Brazilian and international NGOs warned that ruralista lawmakers would likely amend the new legislation to slash the protections on an even greater area of forest.

June 21, 2017

4,287 views

4 min read

U.S. Supreme Court Refuses To Review Evidence that Chevron Committed Fraud and Bribed a Witness in Ecuador Pollution Case

SCOTUS' failure to review the case in the face of this new evidence is a grave miscarriage of justice, and has chilling ramifications for similar environmental justice and human rights cases. Among those is the likelihood that corporations will be inspired to pursue many more retaliatory suits against human rights and environmental groups for...

June 19, 2017

960 views

2 min read

Stop Fueling Amazon Destruction

Extracting crude oil from the western Amazon Basin threatens ecologically- and culturally-sensitive ecosystems critical to global climate stability. California is the largest single importer and processor of this fuel. Therefore, brand-name retailers with significant operations in California have a critical role to play in reducing U.S. demand for...

June 19, 2017

4,734 views

1 min read

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

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UN Experts Slam Brazilian Government’s Attacks on Indigenous Rights

In response to the deepening human rights crisis gripping Brazil, last week a group of experts from the UN and IACHR forcefully denounced President Temer's administration and the agribusiness-affiliated ruralista congressional bloc for leading the assault on the rights of indigenous peoples.

June 15, 2017

4,878 views

3 min read

Temer Faces Political Test Over Amazon Bill

President Michel Temer must choose whether or not to sign a bill freeing up a large section of the Amazon to agriculture, as Brazilian activists warn that the country's environmental commitments could be sacrificed to demands fuelled by its political crisis.

June 14, 2017

3,915 views

3 min read

Oakland Moves To Divest from Banks Violating Indigenous Sovereignty

While President Trump continues to impede progress towards battling climate change, the City of Oakland – Amazon Watch's hometown – took an important step yesterday toward divesting city funds from banks that fund fossil fuels, violation of indigenous sovereignty, and mass incarceration.

June 14, 2017

5,257 views

3 min read

What China and California Have in Common: the Amazon

Before making California an enthusiastic partner of China on climate action, Gov. Jerry Brown must address the significant climate impact of China's foreign investments and of California's contributions to those impacts.

June 14, 2017

6,467 views

3 min read

Amazon Protectors: Brazil’s Indigenous People Struggle To Stave Off Loggers

As politicians plan a radical shift in how land for Brazil's 900,000 aboriginal people is demarcated, environmentalists say places like Reserve 124, where territory is formally owned by indigenous communities, represent the best chance to save endangered forests.

June 6, 2017

2,328 views

4 min read

Resistance and Risk in the Peruvian Amazon

The expansion of oil palm plantations is an emerging threat to the Amazon in Peru and beyond. The rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia have been devastated by oil palm, a legacy that does not bode well for the Western Hemisphere.

June 6, 2017

1,296 views

5 min read

Indigenous Mobilization Results in Steps To End Criminalization in Ecuador

Although this isn't a full victory, it marks a significant step in the right direction toward ending the criminalization of indigenous protest in Ecuador and is a clear demonstration of the power of mass mobilization and international support.

May 31, 2017

5,892 views

2 min read

Chevron CEO Clings To "Alternative Facts" When Confronted With Truth About Ecuador Mismanagement

Midland, TX – Chevron CEO John Watson faced a firestorm of criticism over the company's expanding Ecuador liability at the company's annual meeting today from a group of institutional investors, one of whom accused the oil executive of 'materially mishandling' the case.

May 31, 2017

652 views

5 min read

Chevron Executives Misused Millions of Shareholder Dollars To Bribe a Witness in Violation of U.S. Federal Law

It may seem like this is stating the obvious, but it's a crime to bribe a witness to a U.S. federal court. Funny thing, though; Chevron has done just that, to the tune of $2 million dollars. Yet no one inside Chevron has demanded an explanation for this – until now.

May 30, 2017

6,651 views

5 min read

Brazil’s Political Chaos Paves the Way for Environmental Plunder

As Brazil's President Michel Temer weathers a new storm of corruption allegations that threaten to topple his administration, the rightwing ruralista congressional bloc is cynically leveraging this political chaos to ram through its regressive and malicious agenda.

May 25, 2017

2,612 views

4 min read

Brazil’s Archaeologists Join Fight To Preserve Country’s Ancient Lands

Brazil's archaeologists have lined up alongside conservationists and indigenous rights campaigners to protest against government proposals that they see as a threat to pre-colonial cultural heritage as well as forests, native communities and biodiversity.

May 16, 2017

3,299 views

3 min read

Why Is Brazil Boosting Biofuels Production?

While Petrobras' concerns are, on the surface, laudatory, it is not a stretch to assume that they arise from a concern for the company's bottom line if a greater percentage of biodiesel must be mixed with diesel.

May 15, 2017

2,664 views

2 min read

Civil Society Organizations Unite in Resistance Against Brazil’s Attacks on Environmental and Indigenous Rights Protections

Environmental, indigenous, and human rights organizations from across Brazil and around the globe have united in resistance against measures being adopted by the Brazilian government and the ruralista lobby that violate human rights and jeopardize environmental protection.

May 10, 2017

6,011 views

6 min read

Shipibo Leader Demands #LandRightsNow in Amazon and End To Repression of Indigenous Activists

Over the last several weeks, we were honored to support the activities of Shipibo indigenous activist Ronald Suárez at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York City and during the Peoples Climate March in Washington, DC.

May 9, 2017

6,198 views

4 min read

Chevron’s Illegal Payments To Witnesses Should Prompt Supreme Court To Reconsider Case

For nearly three decades, Ecuadorian communities have tried to hold Texaco (now Chevron) accountable for the company's legacy of oil pollution in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The saga has stretched across the globe, across multiple court rooms and tribunals, and yet justice for the Ecuadorian victims remains elusive.

May 6, 2017

6,081 views

5 min read

El Pueblo de las Cascadas Amenazado Por la Minería

Este pueblo está enfrentando una gran amenaza ya que el estado ecuatoriano ha concesionado parte de su territorio para la implementación del proyecto de extracción de cobre a cielo abierto a la empresa Explocobres, subsidiaria de la transnacional china CRCC y Tongling.

May 5, 2017

5,799 views

7 min read

The People of the Waterfalls Threatened By Mining

The Shuar are facing a great threat given the fact that the Ecuadorian government has sold concessions to part of their territory for an open-pit copper mining project run by the company Explocobres, a subsidiary of the Chinese companies CRCC and Tongling.

May 5, 2017

4,766 views

6 min read

Historic Indigenous Mobilization Confronts Spiraling Threats To Rights and Resources in Brazil

"We affirm that we will not permit violence, rollbacks, and threats perpetrated by the Brazilian government and economic oligarchies against our lives and our rights. We call on Brazilian society and the international community to unite with the struggle of native peoples in defense of traditional territories, Mother Earth, and the well-being of...

May 3, 2017

3,047 views

3 min read

Mobilizing for Indigenous Rights and Climate Justice from the Arctic to the Amazon

"Our participation in the Peoples Climate March was very important because we were able to bring the voice of our Amazon all the way here, showing the world that we are resisting her plunder."

May 2, 2017

5,069 views

5 min read

Brazil’s Deforestation "Sheriff" Has Been Fired

According to Christian Poirier, Amazon Watch Program Director, "The dismissal of Thelma Krug reflects a growing wariness that the Brazilian government's tools for monitoring deforestation are not keeping pace with the diverse and sophisticated methods used by loggers to avoid detection."

May 2, 2017

2,992 views

3 min read

Civil Society Groups Ask U.S. Supreme Court To Reject Chevron’s Attempts to Suppress Free Speech and Undermine Historic Amazon Pollution Case

Oakland, CA – Several prominent environmental and human rights groups are demanding that the U.S. Supreme Court block Chevron's ongoing attacks on their Free Speech rights and its use of false evidence in the historic Ecuador pollution case, where the oil giant faces the largest environmental judgment ever after admitting that it dumped billions...

May 1, 2017

3,861 views

7 min read

Ecuadorian Indigenous Leaders Deliver Letter Calling on China to Abandon Oil Drilling in Their Territory as Ecuador Faces U.N. Review

New York, NY – Indigenous leaders Manari and Gloria Ushigua from the Sápara nation of the Ecuadorian Amazon delivered a letter this morning addressed to the Permanent Mission of the People's Republic of China before the United Nations in New York, in which they call on its state-run oil companies to abandon drilling plans on their rainforest...

May 1, 2017

2,394 views

3 min read

Women for Climate Justice To Unite in Action at The People’s Climate March

On April 29th, 2017, a diverse coalition of women's groups, climate justice organization and allies will unite to march as a Women for Climate Justice Contingent at the People's Climate March for Jobs, Justice and the Climate in Washington D.C. and in support of local marches happening across the country.

April 28, 2017

2,220 views

5 min read

Business as Usual: A Resurgence of Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

The rise in deforestation over the last five years should not be a surprise, given that the underlying factors behind forest clearing continue to grow year by year.

April 27, 2017

3,959 views

7 min read

All: 2017

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

"Indigenous peoples face horrid state violence. Through you, we stand up to this violence and demand a better future. Thank you for your great work!"

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