From the snow-covered plains of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe of North Dakota to Shuar rainforest territories in the Ecuadorian Amazon, there is a resurgence of resistance to extractive industry projects around the world. These conflicts have major implications for China, Latin America's largest trading partner, whose state run companies are...
Nahko has long been connecting his own indigenous roots – he is of Apache descent, as well Puerto Rican, and Filipino and Guam heritage – with indigenous peoples and social movements across North America and beyond wherever the band tours, linking struggles to defend the sacred, protect water, and life.
Nahko, the musician and frontman of Medicine for the People, and his bandmate Patricio Zuñiga Labarca have just returned to the U.S. after a week in Ecuador, where they visited the pristine rainforests of the Ecuadorian Amazon and met with indigenous leaders and communities to hear first hand about local efforts to protect their rights, forests...
In the face of too many previous agreements left unfulfilled, more unity is the best strategy forward, affirm the indigenous federations united in Saramurillo.
"We have lived through the bad experience of damages to our habitat, health, and life as a result of activities related to the Northern Peruvian Oil Pipeline and activities of the oil company Talisman, from which there continue to be environmental liabilities, in part within our territory, that to date have not been remediated," the Achuar wrote...
Check out one of the stunning new films recently released about the Amazon and the heroic environmental defenders protecting it and defending us from climate change.
An indigenous federation opposed to a recently approved plan for oil drilling in the Peruvian Amazon said on Friday that native communities will physically block any attempt by oil companies to operate on their lands.
After five lackluster years under President Ollanta Humala, Peru is facing a new political scenario with the ascension of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski to the presidency. Here are some of the flashpoints Amazon Watch will be monitoring in the coming months and years.
Last Wednesday Amazon Watch received a very disturbing call: the headquarters of CONFENIAE, the regional organization of eleven indigenous peoples which represents nearly 1,500 communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon, was being taken by storm.
Across Peru, headlines have been dominated by the presidential elections. Deep in the Amazon, however, the ongoing trauma caused by oil pipeline spills seeps on. Almost three months following a 2,000-barrel spill in Chiriaco followed by another just days later near Mayuriaga, indigenous communities continue to confront the daily reality of...
Around 82 families from the community of Nazareth benefited from the arrival of emergency supplies of essential food and water. The assistance was delivered by ORPIAN President Edwin Montenegro, thanks to the help of everyone who joined the Everyone For the Amazon (#TodosxLaAmazonía) campaign. This initial delivery was also carried out on the...
The saga of Peru’s Amazonian oil spills continues, more than a month after the first rupture in Chiriaco. The fight for clean-up and accountability went to a new level on Monday, as Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio spoke out for the cause to his 35 million social media followers.
The Inter-Ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Amazon (AIDESEP) will meet today with representatives of Petroperu to demand from the company an immediate solution through an effective action plan to the environmental disaster resulting from the most recent spills in Chiriaco and Morona, caused by lack of maintenance of the...
Children and adults, including some nursing women, immersed themselves in oily water with no protective gear. Before long, many were complaining of headaches, dizziness, blurred vision or nausea. Some still have skin lesions. And although they'd hoped to earn money for school supplies, as classes are due to start in early March, many say they...
Indigenous peoples of Peru's Amazon are responding to the recent spate of oil spills along the Northwestern Peru Pipeline. Primarily, they are pressing the Peruvian government – which runs Petroperu oil company responsible for the pipeline – to urgently attend to the affected communities, to remediate the contaminated rainforest, and...
History is repeating itself in the northern Peruvian Amazon, where three oil spills have been reported along the Northern Peruvian Pipeline since January 25th.
Fish, vegetation and rivers are covered with black spots. According to estimates by Petroperu, about 3,000 barrels spilled into two sectors of Loreto and Amazonas. The spill has reached the Chiriaco River, a tributary of the Maranon, and the people of nearby communities are afraid to consume those waters.
A wave of sadness has surged forth from the Amazon rainforest, washing over many who have supported indigenous rights in Peru. Yesterday we learned that the long-time Achuar leader Jiyukam Lucas Irar Miik had drown in the Pastaza River, as he returned to his home community of Puerto Rubina. As reported by his son, his boat hit a log and capsized...
The Amazon rainforest can seem unimaginably vast. Similarly, the fight to defend it from the onslaught of industrial-scale threats like oil drilling, logging, and huge dams can appear overwhelming. But across the region, local indigenous peoples and our work to support them is making the difference and protecting the lands they have known for...
Indigenous communities in Peru must clear 27 bureaucratic hurdles to obtain official recognition and formal land titles, a costly process that can take more than a decade, while concessionaires face between three and seven bureaucratic steps, depending on whether they seek permits for logging or mining, and can obtain their paperwork in less than...
In 2015, several indigenous peoples announced important advances in their decades-long struggles to defend their sacred homelands. The Achuar people of the Northern Peruvian Amazon and the U'wa people of the Colombian cloud forest both embody the power of grassroots resistance in the face of multi-billion dollar corporations.
Reuters | Indigenous protesters in Peru seized oil wells in an Amazonian oil block on Tuesday and said they also planned to halt output in a neighboring concession to press the government to address pollution and compensation demands.
Amazon Watch works hard to ensure that indigenous spokespeople are featured in media coverage related to their lands and rights, but rarely do we see a film 100% in their voice. That's why we're so eager for you to watch and share the film.
Fusion | According to Andrew E. Miller, with Amazon Watch, community-based documentation of the ongoing pollution in the region led to four rivers being declared "environmental emergency zones" by Peru's Environment Minister, though he told Fusion that "few actions were taken to actually address the crisis."
We are deeply appreciative for the honor of collaborating with indigenous peoples, organizations, and activists, from around the Amazon rainforest and elsewhere. It is extraordinary to find common cause in high-stakes human dramas that, we believe, will help shape the future of the entire planet.
PUINAMUDT | Puinamudt, Peru – Lack of a clear and precise response from the State regarding the demands of the communities from the Pastaza and Corrientes river basins (represented by the FEDIQUEP and FECONACO indigenous federations, respectively) has generated conflict during the most recent phase of dialogue related to the Block 192 consultations.
Last month in direct violation of its own laws on "free, prior, and informed consultation" Ecuadorian government officials and oil company technicians entered oil blocks 74 and 75 in the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon, without informing many of the communities whose ancestral territory the blocks overlap, in what appears to be part of a plan to...
This week Amazon Watch was proud to host a pioneering Climate Equity Strategy Session in partnership with the Sierra Club and the Hillary Institute, where representatives from indigenous and frontline communities, international NGOs, and climate and energy experts discussed the challenges and opportunities of keeping fossil fuels in the ground in...
International Institute on Law and Society (IIDS) | For the first time in Peru, an indigenous people demands the recognition of their legal personhood as a first nation or people and not simply as a "community".
