Eye on the Amazon

Will a new government prioritize protection of the Amazon rainforest and Earth defenders?

February 24, 2021 – As an organization dedicated to advancing Indigenous rights and protecting the Amazon, we support the calls from our Indigenous partners for any new government to respect the clear mandate of Indigenous peoples for an end to new oil and mining extraction and guarantee their rights to territory, self-determination, and to live in an environment free of contamination. It is essential that the incoming administration heed the historical demands of the Indigenous movement, who seek to have their rights and their lives guaranteed and respected. They are the ones who live by and take care of the rivers, the forests, and biodiversity, and they are the ones who suffer directly from the effects of pollution and the destruction of their lands.

Isac was only 24 years old when he was murdered last Friday by the Brazilian military police

February 19, 2021 – Last Friday, February 12th, Isac Tembé left his home on the Alto Rio Guama Indigenous Territory, in the northeast of the Amazonian state of Pará, to go hunting nearby with a group of friends. He never returned. The young Indigenous leader was murdered; shot point-blank in the chest by a member of Brazil's military police, on his own land.

Imbalance of power and environmental racism have so far allowed them to escape paying up

February 11, 2021 – February 14, 2011, was a monumental day in the history of environmental justice, corporate accountability, and human rights. This Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of an Ecuadorian court's groundbreaking judgment holding Chevron, one of the world's largest corporations, accountable for deliberate pollution in the Amazon. This civil court victory was the first of its kind and forever changed the range of possibilities for corporate accountability and environmental justice. We must lift up this date and moment for the unprecedented victory that it represents.

February 2, 2021 – Due to the inaction and discrimination by Amazonian governments, Indigenous peoples have called upon international allies to show solidarity at this critical moment to protect Indigenous rights and lives. They have called on allies – including Amazon Watch – to unite and work together to raise awareness and solidarity funding to ensure medicine, oxygen tanks, logistics, and communication channels are available to serve the most vulnerable populations.

Pushing big finance on climate in the year to come

January 25, 2021 – We are only a few weeks into 2021 and today we've announced the inspiring news that European banks that are collectively responsible for financing the trade of over $5.5 billion in Amazon oil to the U.S. from 2009 to 2020 have committed to immediate exclusion measures on the trading of oil from the Amazon Sacred Headwaters of Ecuador! These commitments come in response to the August 2020 report by Stand.earth and Amazon Watch that exposed how European banks financed the trade of $10 billion USD of oil from the Amazon Sacred Headwaters region to the U.S. This is the first time global commercial banks have adopted policies that exclude finance for extractive activities in the Amazon rainforest. It's both an encouraging sign of things to come and a great motivator to ramp up the pressure – now!

As recently as November 2020, Anglo American had 13 copper prospecting and research permits on Sawré Muybu Indigenous land, which is part of the Munduruku territory

January 8, 2021 – Indigenous lands are protected by the Brazilian Constitution, and current attempts to change this regulatory framework represent a major threat to the rights of Indigenous peoples, to the integrity of their territories – which remain barriers against deforestation and the degradation of Brazilian biomes – and to the ecological and climatic balance resulting from the protection of Indigenous lands, particularly in the Amazon. The Munduruku have spoken: no mining in our lands!