What: Indigenous leaders from the Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon invite you to a press conference during Climate Week NYC 2022. In the context of Climate Week’s theme, Getting It Done, the delegates will discuss ways they are “getting done” protection of the Amazon rainforest from further harm as Indigenous protectors of land and nature. Speakers will also present new research exposing the U.S. and European financial giants behind the companies operating the Amazon, which are notorious for rights violations, corruption, pollution, and deforestation. Among those complicit in Amazon destruction are asset managers BlackRock and Vanguard, and banks JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, and BNP Paribas.
Environmental and advocacy organization Amazon Watch is hosting and moderating the discussion, tying together the ways its solidarity campaigns contribute to the future of the Amazon and our climate.
Speakers include:
- Dinamam Tuxá, a leader of the Tuxá people from Bahia state in Brazil’s northeast and an Executive Coordinator of the Association of Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples (APIB)
- Toya Manchineri, a leader of the Manchineri people from the Amazonian state of Acre and General Coordinator of the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB)
- Atilio Nayap, justice and human rights delegate from the Wampis Nation in Peru
- Nelton Yankur Antich, president of the Achuar Federation in Peru
- Carlos Chapilliquen of the Cabo Blanco Fishermen Association, prominent voice on impacts of offshore oil exploitation in Peru
- Mario Zuñiga, Peruvian anthropologist and expert on oil activities and spills
- Leila Salazar-López, Executive Director, Amazon Watch
- Christian Poirier, Program Director, Amazon Watch
- Moira Birss, Climate and Finance Director, Amazon Watch
- Ricardo Pérez Bailón, Peru Communications Advisor, Amazon Watch
- More speakers to be announced
When: Tuesday, September 20, 2022, from Noon to 2 pm. [Vegetarian lunch will be provided to press]
Where: The People’s Forum, 320 W. 27th St, New York, NY
Interviews and Multimedia: This press conference will not be live-streamed. Members of the media are invited to bring cameras and audio recording equipment. Simultaneous interpretation will be provided in Spanish and Portuguese. Indigenous leaders will be available onsite for interviews following their comments. To arrange interviews, please contact afrank@hastingsgroup.com or +1-703-276-3264.
Photos of the Amazon for media use (Google Gallery)
Background
Amazon Watch is accompanying Indigenous partners during Climate Week NYC 2022 representing multiple coalitions, federations, people, and nations to draw attention to extractive industries destroying the Amazon rainforest and threatening human rights across the biome. Gold mining, oil extraction, and deforestation pose existential threats to the rainforest and its inhabitants. During Climate Week, we are releasing a new joint report on the brands linked to destructively-mined gold from the Amazon, as well as a risk assessment soberly assessing Peruvian state-owned oil company Petroperú. The oil company is seeking to operate oil blocks in the Peruvian Amazon, including Block 64, which faces intense community opposition from the Wampis Nation and Achuar People of the Pastaza River. Petroperú is actively seeking financing from banks based in the U.S. and Europe to expand production.
New scientific research published this fall shows that deforestation and degradation have compromised the ecological integrity of 26 percent of the Amazon, and parts of the region are already at, or past, their ecological tipping point. An international coalition is calling for 80% of the Amazon to be protected by 2025, which can only happen if the financiers of Amazon deforestation end their investment and complicity in destructive industry.
