Press Releases

Statement on Bolsonaro’s Inauguration as Brazil's President

Brazil's Indigenous Movement Prepares to Resist Bolsonaro's Planned Rollbacks on Rights and Environmental Protections in the Brazilian Amazon

"The coming months will prove pivotal in demonstrating the ability of Brazilian social movements and their allies around the world to forestall President Bolsonaro's most destructive policy proposals. As such, Amazon Watch is redoubling its work in solidarity with our embattled partners to push back against an agenda that portends dire consequences for the world's largest rainforest and its stewards, as well as for global climate stability."

Ecuador Walks Back Oil Drilling Plans in Amazon Rainforest

"Minister Pérez' announcement sends a clear message: civil society pressure to defend rights and ecosystems works, and expanding the fossil fuel frontier deeper into Ecuador's Amazon presents risks to companies and problems for the state. This is an important victory for our collective work to keep fossil fuels in the ground from California to the Amazon."

California Should Reduce Emissions, Not Pretend to Offset Them with Tropical Forests, Says Broad Coalition

Environmental justice, Indigenous, green groups and academics to state regulators: Trading pollution is no climate solution

Sacramento, CA – Today the California Air Resources Board will vote on a proposed policy to pay foreign states and provinces to sequester California's industrial CO2 emissions in their tropical forests. Citing a decade's worth of failed forest carbon projects, a coalition of environmental justice organizations, Indigenous Peoples' representatives, green groups, academics and international forest-dwelling people have come to Sacramento to tell CARB to reject the policy, known as the Tropical Forest Standard (TFS).

Activists Deliver One Million Petitions to Governor Brown to Phase Out Fossil Fuels in California

Día de los Muertos Event at Capitol Celebrates the Resilience of Frontline and Indigenous Communities Fighting for a Healthier Future

Sacramento, CA – With the midterm elections just days away, the Brown's Last Chance campaign delivered nearly 60,000 petitions to Governor Brown urging him to freeze new fossil fuel permits in California during his final time in office. Californians and allies from around the globe have directly petitioned the Governor over a million times to phase out the fossil fuel production harming their communities and the climate since he took office in 2011.

Bolsonaro Victory Spells Disaster for the Brazilian Amazon, Spurs Resistance Movement

"The ascension of the divisive and callous politician Jair Bolsonaro to the presidency poses enormous challenges for democracy, human rights, and environmental preservation in Brazil. His administration could undo decades of hard-fought socio-environmental advances and move the country back toward the dark days of its brutal military dictatorship."

Ecuador Reduces Plan for New Oil Blocks in Amazon Rainforest Under Pressure from Indigenous Peoples

New limited auction of remote blocks still threatens indigenous territories, contrary to Hydrocarbon Minister's claim

Oakland, CA – Ecuador's Hydrocarbon Minister Carlos Pérez unexpectedly announced that the oil auction planned for the end of 2018 would be reduced from the original sixteen blocks to two, as leaders of Ecuador's Amazonian indigenous nationalities gathered outside of the country's annual Energy, Mining, and Oil conference yesterday to denounce previous plans by the government to tender sixteen new oil blocks in some of the country's last roadless, intact rainforest.

Block 64: The Wampis Nation Denounces the Serious Socio-Cultural Impacts of GeoPark and PetroPeru's Maneuvers

The oil companies GeoPark and PetroPeru have no limits when it comes to forcing their operation in Block 64 in Loreto Region. In recent months these companies have increased their activities designed to confront a small handful of communities that support their project against the majority of communities that are opposed to the risk of seeing contamination in their territory, which is the patrimony inherited from our ancestors.

Environmental Groups Oppose Chevron's Use of Dirty Tricks to Evade Justice in Ecuador

Organizations argue in legal filings that attacks against lawyer creates widespread silencing of voices calling for corporate accountability

Oakland, CA – Two environmental NGOs filed formal petitions this week before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights and the New York Bar opposing Chevron's attempts to use the legal system to attack those pushing the company to address its toxic legacy in the Amazon.

BlackRock Targeted as Largest Driver of Climate Destruction in New Campaign

Leading climate groups call out the world’s largest owner of fossil fuel companies, tell BlackRock CEO to walk the talk

New York, NY – A campaign launching today is holding BlackRock accountable as the single largest contributor to climate destruction. The campaign, BlackRock's Big Problem, asserts that as the world's biggest owner of fossil fuel companies, BlackRock is putting the planet on a path towards runaway climate change. The campaign launches as world leaders in climate policy, solutions and finance gather in New York for Climate Week.

New Report: Northern Consumers Finance Assault on Brazilian Amazon and Its Peoples

Brazilian politicians pushing environmental and rights rollbacks gain direct economic benefits from these policy changes that allow them to produce more agricultural commodities for the global market, report shows

Oakland, CA – A hard-hitting report published today unmasks key Brazilian political actors behind an ongoing assault on the Amazon rainforest and exposes the global corporate and financial entities that support them. The report from Amazon Watch reveals how the supply chains of leading brand names like Coca-Cola, and the portfolios of asset managers such as BlackRock, finance the political agenda of a powerful congressional bloc whose actions imperil the world's largest rainforest, indigenous rights, and global climate stability.