More About Indigenous Rights

"No One Is Free Until We Are All Free"

The Movement for Black Lives and the Climate Justice Movement Are Inextricably Linked

The United States is in the midst of what some are now calling a "new civil rights movement." During such a groundbreaking historical moment, it is of paramount importance that the environmental and climate movements understand the connection between our work to stop climate chaos and the movement to end systemic racism. This intersectional analysis guides us in our mission and programs at Amazon Watch.

Forests and Human Rights: Principles for Asset Managers

BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, has no clear policy on forests, land, and human rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities

In light of BlackRock's commitments to center climate in its investment strategy and the responsibilities it has stemming from its continued financing of deforestation-linked commodities, the BlackRock's Big Problem campaign urges BlackRock and other asset managers to adopt policies on Forests, Land, and the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities.

BlackRock's Silence on Forest Destruction

It says all you need to know about its ineffective climate policies

After years of pressure from shareholders and legislators, BlackRock finally seemed ready to acknowledge the climate crisis in January, when it announced it would "place climate at the center of its investment strategy." On the surface, the move seemed to send a clear message that business as usual was over. Yet, it has been far from clear what practical good BlackRock's commitment to a "climate-centered" investment strategy does for the climate – or the future of life on earth.

An Effective Response to Crisis in the Amazon Requires Global Collaboration

When the novel coronavirus first began to emerge as a global pandemic, its spread also carried centuries of collective memories of the diseases that previously decimated Indigenous peoples across the Americas. Indigenous peoples across the Amazon began to ban outsiders from their territories and disperse preventative information and resources in their communities.

Jane Fonda, Carlos Santana, Morgan Freeman and Peter Gabriel to Headline Global Livestream Event Supporting COVID-19 Relief in the Amazon

Artists United for Amazonía is livestream event for the benefit of the Amazon Emergency Fund, an indigenous-led effort providing rapid response grants across the Amazon to address the pandemic

On May 28, 2020, Jane Fonda, Morgan Freeman, Carlos Santana, Peter Gabriel, and numerous other artists will join Indigenous leaders, scientists, and a broad coalition of NGOs in hosting Artists United for Amazonía: Protecting the Protectors, a global livestream event.

Help Us Protect the Headwaters of the Amazon from Oil Companies, Elders Say

Indigenous leaders are calling for help to stop oil companies drilling in the headwaters of the Amazon river in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, warning that encroaching on their homelands would destroy a bulwark against climate change.

Oxygen for Ucayali: The Global Crises Exposed by COVID-19

Our Indigenous brothers and sisters in Peru remind us that access to oxygen and healthcare must be guaranteed right in a just economic system. Our partners shouldn't have to choose between purchasing oxygen or paying their bills or feeding their families. COVID-19 is showing us the face of the global food and health crisis and demanding literal oxygen to sustain our survival.

COVID-19: Is GeoPark Contaminating Amazon Communities?

The Wampis Nation, one of the most organized Indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon, is calling out Chile-based oil company GeoPark for putting their communities at risk of the COVID-19 contagion. Leaders of the Wampis Nation have received information that GeoPark community-relations workers are violating Peru's national quarantine by continuing to visit communities as part of a divide-and-conquer strategy to fraudulently manufacture consent for oil operations.

Justice for Arbildo

COVID-19 isn't the only mortal threat facing Amazonian peoples

Arbildo Meléndez Grandes, leader of the Cacataibo Indigenous community of Unipacuyacu, is the latest Indigenous leader of the Peruvian Amazon to be murdered for defending his Indigenous territory. He was a defender of his community – demanding that the government provide a land title – and had received death threats from land-grabbers and narco-traffickers who wanted to control the same territory.