Eye on the Amazon

May 9, 2019 – "The economic project of the Bolsonaro government answers to powerful financial interests, to private corporations, many of them international, including agribusiness and mining interests, among others. Therefore, it is a highly beholden government that is anti-national, predatory, ethnocidal, genocidal and ecocidal."

May 3, 2019 – A match made in Hell? Two individuals with the least regard for the environment and minority rights might be joining forces to "develop" the Amazon. In March, Brazil's new extreme right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro met with his role model Donald Trump at the White House. One of their discussion topics was how to collaborate on the Amazon.

May 2, 2019 – Once a year, the United Nations Headquarters in New York welcomes hundreds of indigenous leaders and representatives from around the world for the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Amazon Watch spent the week accompanying and amplifying the voices and solutions of Amazonian leaders from Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil.

April 3, 2019 – The risk of new oil drilling in Achuar territory is more alarming than it has been since I started with Amazon Watch over twelve years ago. Fortunately, the Achuar are determined to protect their lands and families from contamination and they also benefit from the support of steadfast allies, both Peruvian and international.

March 21, 2019 – Thirty-three of the world's biggest banks have poured a whopping $1.9 trillion into fossil fuels since 2016, and this financing continues to increase every year. That was a key finding of the Banking on Climate Change report, released yesterday by allies including Rainforest Action Network and Indigenous Environmental Network and endorsed by Amazon Watch.

February 20, 2019 – Emboldened by the institutional assault upon indigenous rights being waged by the regime of Jair Bolsonaro, rural mafias are organizing an unprecedented wave of land invasions and attacks on native territories and communities. As Brazil's indigenous agency FUNAI is systematically dismantled, with its mandate to title and monitor indigenous lands handed to agribusiness interests and religious zealots, vast Amazonian forests are becoming increasingly vulnerable to exploitation.