Eye on the Amazon

June 15, 2021 – With a vaccination rate that is already surpassing 120,000 patients per day, Peru is finally showing glimmers of hope that it will overcome the worst of the pandemic. However, a glance towards the Peruvian Amazon shows a different reality. Recovery from COVID-19 in this biodiverse region will be difficult and Indigenous communities will need international support.

How the world’s largest asset managers quietly pour billions into oil companies tied to rights abuses

June 3, 2021 – The “Big Three” manage trillions of dollars of investments for individual and institutional investors all over the world, including pension funds and university endowments. Together they control nearly 20 trillion dollars. By investing in oil companies with horrific environmental and human rights records, they are not only flagrantly ignoring scientific experts, but also actively supporting the Indigenous and human rights abuses, forest destruction, biodiversity loss, and further climate chaos inherent in oil production in the Amazon rainforest.

June 2, 2021 – Unchecked environmental destruction and violence are increasing rapidly on the lands of the Munduruku people, whose forests and waterways are being destroyed by illegal miners. At least ten prominent Munduruku leaders have routinely faced death threats for their resistance to this devastating illicit activity and last week brought a new wave of terror and conflict to Pará state's Tapajós River basin.

The world says thanks to Leonela Moncayo, Rosa Valladolid, Skarlett Naranjo, Jamileth Jurado, Denisse Nuñez, Dannya Bravo, Mishell Mora, Jeyner Tejena, and Kerly Herrera

May 27, 2021 – In a major victory for the environment, human rights, and our climate, nine Amazonian girls just put an end to the oil industry's gas flaring in the Ecuadorian Amazon! The practice has been hiding in plain sight across the Amazon rainforest for decades. For years, Amazon Watch has brought attention to flaring as a source of contamination through its campaigning and on-the-ground advocacy work alongside our long-term Indigenous partners.

May 25, 2021 – Tomorrow, May 26, will be Chevron's 11th shareholder meeting since the company lost a historic $9.5 billion judgement for deliberately polluting the Ecuadorian Amazon. Since then, many more Ecuadorians have gotten sick and died awaiting justice, as Chevron pulled its assets from Ecuador and waged a retaliatory legal assault. It spent well over a billion dollars on lawyers and PR firms to attack its victims in Ecuador and the lawyers who helped defeat Chevron.

Can the United Nations support human rights defenders with one hand, while receiving money from an oil company with the other? An emerging scandal in the Colombian Amazon is forcing the U.N. to deal with the fallout from this contradiction.

May 6, 2021 – "The oil companies are operating in the Amazon anyway, and we can help make sure they abide by human rights standards." Such was the rationale presented by the head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Colombia, Jessica Faieta. The UNDP managed to get itself into quite a pickle and found itself in the uncomfortable position of trying to justify an ill-fated decision to outraged community partners.