New short video narrated by Avatar star Oona Chaplin features director James Cameron, legendary Chief Raoni Metuktire, and Goldman Environmental Prize winner Alessandra Korap Munduruku
Los Angeles, CA | Belém, Brazil – As the Amazon Rainforest approaches a dangerous ecological tipping point, Amazon Watch has released a powerful new video amplifying the voices of Indigenous defenders on the front lines. The video features the legendary Kayapó Chief Raoni Metuktire and Alessandra Korap Munduruku, a 2023 Goldman Environmental Prize winner, with support from filmmaker James Cameron and narration by actress Oona Chaplin.
The Amazon, the largest tropical rainforest on Earth, faces mounting threats from deforestation, industrial agriculture, mining, oil extraction, and escalating violence against land defenders. Scientists warn that continued destruction could push vast portions of the forest toward irreversible collapse, with devastating consequences for global climate stability.
Indigenous Peoples are working to end this destruction and protect the Amazon today. Simultaneously with the release of this video, more than 1,000 Indigenous leaders and community members from Brazil’s Tapajós River region have blockaded a grain terminal in Santarém. For weeks they have blocked highways, shut down access to an international airport, and refused to leave until the Brazilian government revokes Decree 12,600, which privatizes three Amazonian rivers and greenlights destructive dredging, turning living rivers into dead industrial corridors for soy and other monoculture exports.
“For us the Amazon is our lives, our body, our home, our soul,” says Alessandra Korap Munduruku. “The Amazon is life, it is rivers, forests, and peoples who depend on it.”
Chief Raoni Metuktire highlights the urgent threat of agricultural expansion: “Soy plantations are driving more and more destruction. We should not clear any more forests for soy production.”
Indigenous lands remain some of the most intact forests in the Amazon and are proven barriers against deforestation. Communities like the Kayapó and Munduruku have stewarded their territories for generations through deep ecological knowledge and community responsibility. However, efforts to open Brazil’s Indigenous territories to industrial activities – including soy monocrops and the proposed Ferrogrão mega-railway – pose a mounting threat to this critical stewardship.
In response, Kayapo and Munduruku associations are helping lead Brazil’s “Enough Soy” Alliance, a coalition of more than 40 national and international organizations working to halt the destructive expansion of agribusiness while calling for alternative development that serves the needs of the Brazilian people.
Filmmaker James Cameron, whose Avatar films explore themes of Indigenous resistance to industrial destruction, lends his voice to support these real-world defenders. “I made the film Avatar to tell a story about Indigenous people who are under assault from extractive industries and other industrial projects,” Cameron says. “This film underscores the reality of what is unfolding in the Amazon.”
Actress Oona Chaplin, who narrates the video, frames the stakes: “In the Amazon rainforest, that story is real, with consequences for us all.”
The video emphasizes that survival depends on unity across movements, nations, and generations. Indigenous resistance through nonviolent action, cultural resilience, and legal defense offers a source of hope for the planet.
The video serves as a call to action, inviting audiences to support Indigenous leadership and defend Indigenous land rights in solidarity with organizations like Amazon Watch, which works directly with Indigenous communities across the Amazon Basin.
“Indigenous peoples are the true defenders of the Amazon. Their resistance is our hope for the future of life on Earth,” declared Amazon Watch Executive Director Leila Salazar-López.
About Amazon Watch
Amazon Watch is a nonprofit organization that works to protect the Amazon Rainforest and advance the rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Amazon Basin. For nearly three decades, Amazon Watch has partnered with Indigenous organizations to defend territories, resist extractive industries, and promote Indigenous-led solutions to the climate crisis.
