Quito, Ecuador – Ecuador's two oil pipeline operators prematurely halted clean-up operations last week, declaring the remediation complete despite evidence of ongoing pollution in both the Coca and Napo rivers. The companies are now seeking to close the door on the country's worst spill in the last 15 years by convening public meetings with...
All: 2020
A New Justice Movement Emerges to Defend Steven Donziger
The lawyer who helped win a historic Amazon cleanup deal faces six months in prison, but will still not have a jury trial
The Nation | In 2013 Donziger helped win a landmark legal case in Ecuador against Chevron for contaminating a vast stretch of rain forest in the Amazon headwaters larger than the state of Rhode Island. The Ecuadorean courts awarded the 30,000 plaintiffs, who are poor rural farmers and indigenous people, $9.5 billion to clean up the damage. Instead of obeying...
Delayed Justice, Again
The Kichwa of Ecuador vow to appeal lawsuit over worst oil spill in the last fifteen years
"Today's ruling shows that the Ecuadorian justice system has once again put the interests of oil companies above the rights of Indigenous peoples and nature. The evidence of contamination and the impact on the lives of the Kichwa populations of the Coca and Napo rivers was overwhelming during the hearing. However, the judge, without law or logic...
Climate Activists Ramp Up Pressure on BlackRock During Fires Week of Action
Despite positioning itself earlier this year as a financial firm that leads on climate, BlackRock continues to be a major financial investor in the deforestation commodity companies currently fueling the fires in the Amazon. BlackRock is a top investor in deforestation-risk commodities around the world, and despite vague commitments to prioritize...
Climate Activists Stage Direct Action Against BlackRock’s Continued Financing of Amazon Fires
Activists post decals of Amazon fire destruction on BlackRock's San Francisco and New York headquarters calling out financier for climate commitments that fail to address deforestation and Indigenous rights violations
"According to MAAP, as of August 30th of this year, over 1.1 million acres (453,000 hectares) of recently deforested areas have burned in the Brazilian Amazon. Given the urgency of what's happening in the Amazon today, it's encouraging to see that activists are turning out from coast to coast to hold BlackRock accountable for its contributions to...
Amazon Watch is building on more than 25 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.
The Amazon’s Burning Season Is a Call to Action
In response to this worsening crisis, Amazon Watch is calling for an #AmazonCeasefire by mounting a communications, advocacy, and direct relief campaign alongside a coalition of Brazilian and global allies. We are shining a spotlight on the true drivers of today's crisis – from political delinquency to market complicity – while also targeting...
Ese Eja: A Young Nation Guided by Ancestral Vision
Our Amazon Defender's Fund supports Indigenous sovereignty during the COVID-19 pandemic
One Amazonian nation that has prioritized addressing collective needs in their community during the pandemic has been the Ese Eja. It is now a young nation with a clear political vision, solid organizing, and communal ties. With a direct grant from the ADF, the Ese Eja have equipped their health posts with oxygen concentrators in each of their...
Trading in Pollution: European Banks Bankroll Billions in Amazon Oil
"I wonder if the executives of banks in Europe know the real cost of their financing. How can they possibly sleep peacefully knowing their money leaves thousands of Indigenous peoples and communities without water, without food, and in devastating health conditions due to the pollution of the Coca and Napo rivers? It's time for the banks...
European Banks Financing Trade of Amazon Oil to the U.S.
Groundbreaking report exposes a range of European banks have provided $10 billion USD in trade financing for over 155 million barrels of oil from the Ecuadorian region of the Amazon Sacred Headwaters to refineries in the U.S.
Why in the world would any bank that has policies on advancing human rights, sustainability, and climate change be financing the flow of oil from the Amazon Sacred Headwaters region in Ecuador to US refineries? Makes you wonder if there's a little hypocrisy in play. Our report led by Stand.earth Research Group in partnership with Amazon Watch...
European Banks Urged to Stop Funding Oil Trade in Amazon
Indigenous people in headwaters region say financing harms communities and ecosystems
The Guardian | Marlon Vargas, the president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon, said: "I wonder if the executives of banks in Europe know the real cost of their financing. How can they possibly sleep peacefully knowing their money leaves thousands of indigenous peoples and communities without water, without food and in...
European Banks Face Indigenous Calls to End Amazon Oil Trade
Reuters | European banks committed to backing action on climate change face allegations of double standards from indigenous groups in Ecuador after a report named them as major players in the trade in oil from the Amazon rainforest.
New Report Reveals European Banks Financing Trade of Controversial Amazon Oil to U.S.
Banks in Switzerland, France, Netherlands facilitate trade from Amazon Sacred Headwaters region in Ecuador, where oil extraction contributes to spills, human rights abuses, and climate destruction
"The oil industry has a toxic legacy in the Amazon, further exacerbated by recent spills that have contaminated rivers and disrupted the health and food security of Indigenous communities. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, oil companies continue to pursue expansion, putting Indigenous peoples at even greater risk. These banks cannot claim to...
More Than 60 NGOs Demand Moratorium on Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon
The Association of Brazil's Indigenous Peoples (APIB) and several organizations deliver the proposal ahead of the Amazon burning season
São Paulo – More than 60 NGOs, including Amazon Watch, in partnership with the Association of Brazil's Indigenous Peoples' Association (APIB) delivered a letter today to the Brazilian Congress, foreign investors, and European parliamentarians demanding five emergency measures to contain the deforestation crisis in the Amazon rainforest, including...
#AdiosGeoPark: Peruvian Indigenous Peoples Expel Another Oil Company
The Achuar People of the Pastaza and the Wampis Nation secure a new victory for the climate justice movement by defeating fossil fuel company GeoPark
Today, we celebrate a major victory after years of collaboration and hard work to fend off another multinational oil company that was supported by the world's largest investment firms and powerful governments.
Amazon in Crisis 2020
The Amazon and our global climate are in crisis. Following rampant deforestation and fires that ravaged the Amazon rainforest last year, the Amazon is now facing a tipping point of ecological collapse. The Amazon is also facing a humanitarian crisis with the COVID-19 pandemic that is spreading exponentially across the region.
Dramatic Footage Fuels Fears Amazon Fires Could Be Worse Than Last Year
As dry season starts campaigners sound alarm over "shocking" scale of fires, Bolsonaro doubles down on denials
The Guardian | Official data shows the Brazilian government's efforts so far this year have failed to bring results. Brazil saw more fires in the Amazon this June than in any year since 2007. Brazil's space research agency INPE spotted 2,248, compared with 1,880 in June last year.
Indigenous Resistance Expels Oil Company GeoPark from Peruvian Amazon
The Chile-based oil company's announcement follows years of protests, lawsuits, outreach to major shareholders, and direct advocacy with the CEO
"GeoPark's departure from Block 64 is a testament to the vision and persistence of the Achuar people and Wampis Nation. Let this be the final nail in Block 64's coffin," said Andrew Miller, Advocacy Director at Amazon Watch.
The Munduruku and Kayapo Are Fighting to Protect Their Past and Future
In response to the government's malign neglect in the Brazilian Amazon during the pandemic, our Amazon Defenders Fund, in partnership with allies, delivers oxygen concentrators and crucial health equipment
We are witnessing the devastating effects of negligent and narcissistic government leadership, as COVID-19 cases continue to explode from the U.S. to the Amazon. Scientists, health experts, and Indigenous peoples are rightfully calling out governments for their failure to prevent the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. In the Amazon, our...
Calling for an Amazon Ceasefire
In simple terms, global finance is the oxygen on which the Amazon fires burn
A year ago, the world awoke to one of the worst environmental disasters in a generation, as São Paulo's afternoon sky was plunged into darkness by a dense plume of smoke from fires that raged across the Brazilian Amazon. The devastation of the rainforest was met with unprecedented global concern and media visibility. This year, as our societies...
Mining on Indigenous Territories Brings Ecological Devastation, Land Invasions, and Violence
Two new reports detail potential scale of harm caused by mining projects in Indigenous communities, including water pollution and increasing the spread of COVID-19
"We, the Yanomami people, have long been forced to live with the invasion of illegal mining. Miners are contaminating our rivers with mercury, carving out our lands, and killing our animals and our environment. Our health is poor as a result of drinking water contaminated by mining. Right now, they could potentially infect almost half of our...
Unless Forced to Act, the Government Would Simply Leave Us to Die
Beset by the Bolsonaro administration's negligence on public healthcare, Indigenous peoples take resistance to the Supreme Court
Folha de São Paulo | The first Indigenous person to die from COVID-19 was Alvanei Xirixana, a 15-year-old Yanomami boy, who was not even a member of a high-risk group. More than 20,000 wildcat miners have invaded Yanomami lands. It's not an exaggeration to say that the Yanomami and the peoples living in voluntary isolation there are in grave danger of disappearing...
Leading Anti-SLAPP Coalition Denounces Chevron for Corruption and Legal Bullying
Protect the Protest task force members file amicus brief to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
"Steven Donziger is being criminally prosecuted not only for his advocacy but by the very targets of his advocacy. Chevron has not merely sued its adversary; it is pulling the strings of a criminal prosecution. That the prosecutor of Chevron's nemesis is Chevron's former law firm not only undermines confidence in the prosecutor's impartiality; it...
Murder of Two Yanomami by Illegal Miners Heightens Fears of Renewed Cycle of Violence
The Indigenous Hutukara Yanomami Association demands a rigorous investigation of the murders and reinforces the need for the Brazilian government to immediately expel more than 20,000 miners illegally operating on Yanomami land
"The murder of two more Yanomami by miners must be rigorously investigated and reinforces the need for the Brazilian State to act urgently and immediately remove all the miners who are illegally exploiting the Yanomami Territory and harassing and assaulting the Indigenous communities who live there."
Is BlackRock the New Vampire Squid?
The investment giant casts itself as socially responsible while contributing to the climate catastrophe, evading regulatory scrutiny, and angling to influence a Biden administration
The New Republic | Luiz Eloy, a member of the Terena people and a lawyer with the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, said in an email that BlackRock has "changed absolutely nothing to alter its investment strategy, which pours money into the very companies that brutalize us and take down forests on an industrial scale. Talk means nothing to us, not after...
"No One Is Free Until We Are All Free"
The Movement for Black Lives and the Climate Justice Movement Are Inextricably Linked
The United States is in the midst of what some are now calling a "new civil rights movement." During such a groundbreaking historical moment, it is of paramount importance that the environmental and climate movements understand the connection between our work to stop climate chaos and the movement to end systemic racism. This intersectional...
Forests and Human Rights: Principles for Asset Managers
BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, has no clear policy on forests, land, and human rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities
BlackRock's Big Problem | In light of BlackRock's commitments to center climate in its investment strategy and the responsibilities it has stemming from its continued financing of deforestation-linked commodities, the BlackRock's Big Problem campaign urges BlackRock and other asset managers to adopt policies on Forests, Land, and the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples and...
BlackRock's Silence on Forest Destruction
It says all you need to know about its ineffective climate policies
After years of pressure from shareholders and legislators, BlackRock finally seemed ready to acknowledge the climate crisis in January, when it announced it would "place climate at the center of its investment strategy." On the surface, the move seemed to send a clear message that business as usual was over. Yet, it has been far from clear what...
Proposed Gold Mine in Brazilian Amazon Presents Unacceptable Degree of Risk
Hydrogeologist recommends that Canadian company Belo Sun’s license be revoked
An expert study released today reveals serious deficiencies in the environmental impact assessment submitted to Brazilian authorities by Canadian mining company Belo Sun. The analysis exposes an unacceptable degree of risk, resulting in a scenario where the tailings dam at the proposed Volta Grande gold mine will fail, contaminate the Xingu River...
Chevron Is a Champion of Environmental Racism
The murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor have catalyzed a seismic and long-overdue shift in support for the Movement for Black Lives and to defund the police. At the same time, the climate justice movement has finally begun to gain momentum because of the increasing recognition that overcoming our environmental crisis requires addressing and...
