2021 Was a Year to Reflect, Reclaim, and Reconnect | Amazon Watch
Amazon Watch

2021 Was a Year to Reflect, Reclaim, and Reconnect

December 23, 2021 | Ada Recinos | Eye on the Amazon

2021 was full of highs and lows as we entered our second year in physical isolation from one another. We celebrated 25 years as an organization with our community, in deep solidarity with Indigenous peoples. We reflected on all that we have accomplished together and what challenges remain ahead. 

The pandemic rages on and we’re still responding to the COVID-19 needs on the ground. This year the rainforest also crossed over into its tipping point, a milestone we’d been ringing the alarm about over the last few years. But alongside allies and with our partners on the front lines, we also built a stronger, more determined movement of millions to turn it around and demand accountability. Together, we made sure this destruction did not happen in silence. This tipping point is a turning point for us. From supporting grassroots mobilizations to advising on legal strategies to bringing our advocacy work to COP26, we showed up to resist. We also continue to mobilize at least one third of our budget in solidarity funds toward movement building and rapid response projects on the ground through our Amazon Defenders Fund. Our holistic approach to address the emergencies across the Amazon make us a trusted partner that Indigenous communities turn to, time and time again. 

We celebrated several victories and took steps toward permanently protecting the Amazon and guaranteeing the full recognition of Indigenous rights and sovereignty. We began the year with a groundbreaking commitment from European banks excluding the trade of Amazon oil from financing, and this win led to the start of a new Exit Amazon Oil & Gas campaign with our allies at Stand.earth. We amplified and supported landmark cases, such as the recent win by longtime partners UDAPT in Ecuador to end toxic oil flaring practices. We stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol with Members of Congress to demand true accountability for Chevron’s toxic destruction in the Amazon as the growing global movement exposed and rejected the gross polluter’s corrupt scheme to scapegoat human rights lawyer Steven Donziger.

Due to sustained pressure since the launch of Complicity in Destruction III, we pushed mining company Anglo American to withdraw all its research permits from Indigenous lands in Brazil. In Colombia, we pushed UNDP to cut ties with gross human rights violator, oil company Geopark. Right now, our partners in Peru are successfully pressuring the Peruvian government to prioritize collective land titles for Indigenous communities and policies for the protection of Earth defenders. Just last week, Herlin Odicio, president of the Federation of Native Communities Kakataibo (FENACOKA), delivered nearly 7,000 signatures of support to ministers in Peru.

The deforestation and degradation of Amazonia has drastically increased over the last few years, as extractive industries and its complicit politicians and financial backers have chosen profit over our climate and humanity. Oil, mining, and agribusiness companies have carried on despite immense and sustained resistance from Indigenous communities. Governments failed to protect Indigenous communities ignoring international standards guaranteeing their rights and sovereignty. Global leaders allowed the rainforest to cross the tipping point, despite warnings, knowledge, and solutions from Indigenous peoples. Now at 22 percent deforestation and degradation, we have no choice but to demand accountability and we’re implementing new strategies to keep up the pressure. 

Taking the lead from our partners, we began to organize. This year we came together with environmental and human rights organizations, led by the Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) to launch the Amazonía for Life: Protect 80% by 2025 coalition. This initiative, approved in an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) motion, has garnered global support and outlines the steps governments and companies need to take, backed by scientific and Indigenous cosmovision, to protect the rainforest over the next few years. We maintained the pressure on one of the most powerful financial institutions, BlackRock, and named banks and even U.S. states playing an outsized role in Amazon oil. On the ground, we supported important investigations on the role of international aid in land grabs by narcotraffickers and a report on the most egregious human rights violations against Ecuadorian Earth defenders. When the burning season began, we came together with Greenpeace Brazil and the Climate Observatory to take people on a flyover across the Brazilian Amazon to bear witness to the rainforest in flames.

Presidents, such as Brazil’s Bolsonaro and Ecuador’s Lasso, in lock-step with Financial CEOs, such as BlackRock’s Larry Fink, hope their power isolates them from accountability. They want us to turn away and give up. But our voices are more powerful when we are united. If the pandemic has shown us anything, it is that our future depends on community. So we invite you to strengthen your commitment to this community, with a deep love for the rainforest and its peoples, because the collective liberation of Indigenous peoples benefits all of us. In 2022, our Indigenous partners are doubling down on protecting Amazonía and reversing its destruction, and so must we.

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