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Amazon in Focus 2018

While the threats to the Amazon and indigenous peoples seem daunting at times, we cannot lose sight of hope and victories on the horizon. And while the day-to-day isn't always good, there are still many reasons to be hopeful for the future of the Amazon. Indigenous peoples across the Amazon are resisting extraction and further destruction of their lands and promoting visionary solutions to protect their rights and territories.

The Amazon on the Brink

Once a leader in protecting the region's vast forests, Brazil is now moving in the opposite direction

If the government's retrenchment on environmental protection continues, there may soon be nothing to stop the chain saws on the Amazonian frontier, where the rule of law can be weak and land is frequently seized and cleared illegally. This has implications beyond Brazil. The Amazon's lush forests make up the largest reserve of carbon dioxide on the surface of the earth. This potent greenhouse gas is released when forests are burned or bulldozed and left to decay.

Uncontacted Tribes at Risk Amid "Worrying" Surge in Amazon Deforestation

Brazil is grappling with scores of deadly land conflicts, illustrating the tensions between preserving indigenous culture and economic development

Ilegal loggers and militias cleared an area three times the size of Gibraltar in Brazil's Amazon this year, threatening an "uncontacted" indigenous tribe.

Complicity in Destruction

How northern consumers and financiers sustain the assault on the Brazilian Amazon and its peoples

Despite their importance, the Brazilian Amazon and its peoples are suffering the worst assault in a generation. Deforestation is mounting steadily while hard-fought environmental and human rights protections, critical to the future of the rainforest, are under serious attack. Indigenous and traditional communities themselves suffer disproportionate violence and repression for defending their rights and forests.

Brazilian Legislators Break Law, Attack Amazon, Trade Freely with World: Report

A report published this week by Amazon Watch reveals that six prominent Brazilian politicians – members of the bancada ruralista agribusiness lobby and all but one up for election in October – have been found guilty of serious environmental, economic, and social crimes and offenses.

"They Won't Be Able to Eat Their Money"

Pacific Standard spoke with Amazonian activists, local grandmothers, and small children at Saturday's march in San Francisco

"The planet depends on us; the Earth, the rivers, the mountains, the trees provide us with oxygen, and we need to ensure that we protect them. We need to listen to each other's voices, we need to understand that climate change doesn't just affect indigenous people – it affects all of us. We must have the will to change. We're committing suicide in this moment."

Belo Monte: There Is Nothing Green or Sustainable About These Mega-dams

Belo Monte is just one of many dams across the globe that have been justified – and funded – as sustainable pursuits. Yet, this conflates the ends with the means. Hydroelectricity may appear relatively 'clean' but the process in which a mega-dam is built is far from it.

Chinese/Western Financing of Roads, Dams Led to Major Andes Amazon Deforestation

"We are seeing some of the same manifest destiny-style development schemes that characterized the region decades ago. It is rapidly turning the Amazon from carbon sink to carbon source at the time the climate ­– and planet – can least afford it," said Kevin Koenig of Amazon Watch.

Brazil's Political Storm Driving Amazon Deforestation Higher

Many experts aren't surprised by these land-grabber assaults, even though the Apyterewa preserve lies within the area of influence of the giant Belo Monte dam built on the Xingu River, and even though one of the conditions for the dam's construction, agreed to in 2010, was that the government protect this territory and evict all illegal intruders living there. Even before the dam was built, critics warned that the authorities would not be able to fulfill this commitment, and that pressure on protected areas near the dam would rise.