In 2024, Amazon Watch deepened our commitment to protecting the Amazon rainforest and defending the rights of Indigenous peoples. Through bold campaigns, strategic advocacy, and unwavering solidarity with our Indigenous and local community partners, we achieved groundbreaking victories.
As we embrace the formidable challenges ahead in 2025, we ground ourselves in the power of our collective action. Together, we will continue to nurture a movement of global solidarity with Indigenous land defenders, ushering in a new era of climate justice for the Amazon, our communities, and our shared future.
Halting Petroperú’s expansion
This past year, Amazon Watch played a key role in halting the dangerous expansion of Petroperú, Peru’s state-owned oil company. Working alongside Indigenous communities like the Chapra, Wampis, and Achuar, we released a comprehensive report exposing Petroperú’s financial, environmental, and social liabilities. Three major credit downgrades followed, delaying a critical $1 billion bond issuance and creating uncertainty for Petroperú’s operations. When the entire Petroperú board resigned in September, the tide turned decisively, with banks increasingly reluctant to fund this hazardous enterprise.
Canceling Brazil’s largest open-pit gold mine
In Brazil, a federal court annulled the contract for the Volta Grande gold mine, a project by Canadian company Belo Sun that threatened the Amazon’s Xingu River basin. Thanks to years of dedicated mobilization by communities, activists, and allies like Amazon Watch, this ruling is a victory not only for the environment but also for Indigenous and local leaders who faced retaliation and intimidation for opposing the project
Amplifying Indigenous voices on global platforms
From the United Nations COP on Transnational Organized Crime in Vienna, Austria, to the U.N. Biodiversity COP16 in Cali, Colombia, Indigenous leaders elevated their stories and climate solutions to global audiences throughout 2024. Amazon Watch provided logistical and technical support for their participation, ensuring Indigenous voices remain central in global policy forums regarding deforestation, biodiversity, and climate justice.
Protecting Yasuní: A landmark victory for life
In 2023, Ecuadorians voted overwhelmingly to end oil drilling in Yasuní National Park, one of the most biodiverse places on Earth and a critical home to the Waorani and other Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation. In 2024, Amazon Watch worked in solidarity with allies to continue critical pressure to force the Ecuadorian government to respect the will of the people and end oil extraction in Yasuní. This ongoing solidarity work with the Waorani since 2003 is a testament to the power of grassroots mobilization and international solidarity in protecting life-sustaining ecosystems.
Advancing Indigenous land demarcation in Brazil
After decades of struggle, the Mundurukú people achieved a critical milestone in securing their ancestral territory, Sawré Muybu. In September of 2024, Brazil’s Minister of Justice officially “declared” Sawré Muybu, advancing it towards the final stage of demarcation. Amazon Watch has accompanied the Mundurukú for over a decade through coordinated grassroots organizing, media advocacy, and direct engagement with government officials.
Preventing Ferrogrão’s devastation
The Ferrogrão railway project, a massive agribusiness initiative threatening the Amazon and Cerrado biomes, faced critical delays this past year. Amazon Watch’s coalition-building efforts, strategic advocacy, and political pressure helped stall this destructive initiative and created significant barriers to its advancement.
Ushering in a new era of justice for the U’wa people
After 25 years of dedicated struggle, the U’wa people of Colombia received a favorable sentence from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights recognizing their right to collective ownership of their territory and reparations for past harms. Amazon Watch helped publicize this historic legal victory, galvanizing coverage in Noticias Uno, El País and Democracy Now. We have accompanied the U’wa people for nearly three decades, amplifying their struggle for their collective rights in the face of oil companies, illegal armed groups, and governmental indifference.
Exposing the perpetrators of Indigenous land dispossession in Peru
In partnership with two leading investigative journalists, Amazon Watch’s Amazon Crime campaign produced a groundbreaking multimedia report exposing the perpetrators of land dispossession in the ancestral homelands of the Kakataibo Indigenous people of Peru. Harnessing georeferenced data, public records, and witness testimony, the report uncovers the destruction in the region and traces the relationship between the government and criminal networks.
Uplifting women’s leadership
Amazon Watch’s growing investment in Indigenous women’s leadership has been transformative in strengthening women’s voices and influence. From women-led gatherings to solar installations supporting remote communities, we’ve helped amplify women’s voices in the fight for territorial defense and environmental justice.
The Amazon is at a tipping point, but our collective victories show us a powerful pathway forward in the year ahead. By standing in principled solidarity with Indigenous communities, amplifying their solutions, and directly challenging industries fueling the Amazon’s destruction, we will continue to protect the rainforest and the communities that steward it.
Thank you to our community for helping to make these achievements possible! In 2025, we will continue the fight for climate justice, biodiversity, and the health of the heart of our planet – the Amazon.
