Following years of multiple crises in the Amazon amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we began to see hope on the horizon in 2021-2022. It was a monumental year defending the Amazon and human rights!
Together with Indigenous partners, I traveled to Glasgow for the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP26) to amplify the call to protect 80% of the Amazon by 2025. And, finally, I returned to the Amazon after several years. I traveled to Puyo, Ecuador for the inspiring opening of the Casa de Mujeres Amazónicas (Amazon Women Defenders House), and to the central Peruvian Amazon to meet and sit with Shipibo women healers who we supported via our Amazon Defenders Fund (ADF). At times I struggled with a mix of fear and fatigue, followed almost inevitably with renewed hope and inspiration by victories such as the one-year moratorium on new oil and mining in Ecuador, the delay of a massive open pit gold mine in Brazil, and the opening of the Mujeres Amazónicas house in Puyo, Ecuador.
This year, the world seemed to finally grasp what Amazon Watch has been saying for over 25 years: To protect and defend the Amazon and our global climate, we must act in solidarity with Indigenous peoples, for they are the best stewards of the Amazon and global biodiversity. We saw the rise of a Pan-Amazon movement and welcomed announcements by governments and philanthropists to finally invest big in forest protection and Indigenous peoples, yet we still see a massive short-fall in direct investments to Indigenous and forest peoples without carbon offsets.
New research this year confirmed that parts of the Amazon have already reached a ‘tipping point’ due to increased deforestation and degradation. To halt this tipping point requires immediate commitments from governments, corporations and financial institutions to stop deforestation, increased demarcation of Indigenous territories, advanced legal strategy, advocacy, and robust support of Indigenous defenders. In response to the severity of the tipping point crisis, we have expanded our U.S. based staff and teams in Brazil, Peru, and Ecuador, and increased pressure on those corporations and financial institutions investing in Amazon destruction.
While on a walk deep in Shipibo territory in the central Peruvian Amazon, I stopped to take a picture of a beautiful spiraling liana vine, and to my surprise I saw two big black eyes staring back at me – I was face to face with one of the world’s rarest jungle cats, a Tigrillo. I feel so blessed to have met this beautiful animal! My Shipibo friends said they had never seen her either. We chose to view this as a sign for good luck in this “Year of the Tiger.”
Thank you for your partnership with Amazon Watch and solidarity with Indigenous peoples during this critical and transformative time for the Amazon, our climate, and all of humanity.
With deep gratitude for your support,
Leila Salazar-López
Executive Director
