More About COVID-19

#AdiosGeoPark: Peruvian Indigenous Peoples Expel Another Oil Company

The Achuar People of the Pastaza and the Wampis Nation secure a new victory for the climate justice movement by defeating fossil fuel company GeoPark

Today, we celebrate a major victory after years of collaboration and hard work to fend off another multinational oil company that was supported by the world's largest investment firms and powerful governments. This is a significant win not just for the Indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon, but for all communities around the world resisting extractive industries that are invading their territories and destroying the planet. Oil companies would be wise to recognize that our global movement to keep it in the ground is effective when led by Indigenous resistance. We aren't backing down, and we're only getting stronger with every win.

Amazon in Crisis 2020

The Amazon and our global climate are in crisis. Following rampant deforestation and fires that ravaged the Amazon rainforest last year, the Amazon is now facing a tipping point of ecological collapse. The Amazon is also facing a humanitarian crisis with the COVID-19 pandemic that is spreading exponentially across the region, with the potential of ethnocide of Indigenous peoples if immediate and ongoing action is not taken. While the challenges may seem daunting, we still have time to shift from "tipping point to turning point" for the Amazon, the global climate and all of humanity.

Indigenous Resistance Expels Oil Company GeoPark from Peruvian Amazon

The Chile-based oil company's announcement follows years of protests, lawsuits, outreach to major shareholders, and direct advocacy with the CEO

"GeoPark's departure from Block 64 is a testament to the vision and persistence of the Achuar people and Wampis Nation, both of which have a long history of successfully expelling oil companies from their ancestral territories. Let this be the final nail in Block 64's coffin," said Andrew Miller, Advocacy Director at Amazon Watch.

The Munduruku and Kayapo Are Fighting to Protect Their Past and Future

In response to the government's malign neglect in the Brazilian Amazon during the pandemic, our Amazon Defenders Fund, in partnership with allies, delivers oxygen concentrators and crucial health equipment

We are witnessing the devastating effects of negligent and narcissistic government leadership, as COVID-19 cases continue to explode from the U.S. to the Amazon. Scientists, health experts, and Indigenous peoples are rightfully calling out governments for their failure to prevent the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. In the Amazon, our Indigenous partners warned us months ago about the potential ethnocide they were facing as health systems – which were already inaccessible to many Indigenous communities – began to collapse.

Calling for an Amazon Ceasefire

In simple terms, global finance is the oxygen on which the Amazon fires burn

A year ago, the world awoke to one of the worst environmental disasters in a generation, as São Paulo's afternoon sky was plunged into darkness by a dense plume of smoke from fires that raged across the Brazilian Amazon. The devastation of the rainforest was met with unprecedented global concern and media visibility. This year, as our societies grapple with the all-encompassing COVID-19 pandemic, the Brazilian Amazon has begun to burn yet again, fueled by explosive criminality and a political maelstrom emanating from Brasilia.

Mining on Indigenous Territories Brings Ecological Devastation, Land Invasions, and Renewed Cycles of Violence

Two new reports detail potential scale of harm caused by mining projects in Indigenous communities, including water pollution and increasing the spread of COVID-19

"We, the Yanomami people, have long been forced to live with the invasion of illegal mining. Miners are contaminating our rivers with mercury, carving out our lands, and killing our animals and our environment. Our health is poor as a result of drinking water contaminated by mining. Right now, they could potentially infect almost half of our people, who live in villages invaded by mining," said Dario Kopenawa Yanomami.

Unless Forced to Act, the Government Would Simply Leave Us to Die

Beset by the Bolsonaro administration's negligence on public healthcare, Indigenous peoples take resistance to the Supreme Court

The first Indigenous person to die from COVID-19 was Alvanei Xirixana, a 15-year-old Yanomami boy, who was not even a member of a high-risk group. More than 20,000 wildcat miners have invaded Yanomami lands. It's not an exaggeration to say that the Yanomami and the peoples living in voluntary isolation there are in grave danger of disappearing. But we are all extremely vulnerable to COVID-19, including those of us who live in cities.

The U'wa Community's Nonviolent Resistance to COVID-19 and Attacks in Colombia

The U'wa Indigenous Guard, active in the cloud forest of Colombia near the border with Venezuela, were formed to nonviolently defend U'wa territory from a multitude of external threats from extractive companies and unwanted "eco-tourists". In the era of COVID-19 – known to U'wa spiritual elders as "The Demon" – the Guard's mission has expanded to include the protection of their territory from the spread of the deadly pandemic.