Amazon Watch
    Amazon Watch

    Amazon Crime

    Strengthening Indigenous defense against illegal economies

    Across the Amazon basin, organized crime is now one of the greatest threats to Indigenous territories and a major driver of deforestation and biodiversity loss. Illegal gold mining, coca production, and land grabbing have surged in recent years, fueling violence, deforestation, and territorial invasion on an alarming scale.

    Amazon Watch is advocating for effective state operations against criminal economies as well as international action to support Indigenous rights and territorial governance in alignment with their strategies and visions. In partnership with investigative journalists, we are launching groundbreaking research documenting the scope and impact of organized crime to inform media and decision makers while helping build an ecosystem of support and protection for Earth Defenders at risk.

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    Standing With the Kakataibo

    Resilience amid Peru’s crisis of corruption and organized crime

    The Kakataibo have made it clear to us: they will not give up. Their fight to reclaim and defend their ancestral lands has lasted more than two decades, and this is simply another chapter in a long struggle for survival and justice.

    October 22, 2025
    6,871 views
    4 min read

    Defending the Amazon Against Illegal Economies

    The Wampís Nation’s fight to defend their territory against an invasion of illegal mining

    The Wampís’ fight is not just local, it’s global. Defending the Amazon means defending the planet.

    October 22, 2025
    4,699 views
    1 min read

    When Criminals Rule the Amazon Jungle and Time Runs Out

    The crisis of public security, environmental crime, and human rights must be on the agenda of the Summit of Amazonian Countries

    El País | Without coordinated action and meaningful inclusion of local voices, the region faces escalating violence and irreversible damage to one of the world’s most critical ecosystems.

    August 19, 2025
    4,629 views
    4 min read

    Amazon Watch is building on more than 28 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.

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    New Report Released: In the Shadows of the State

    Illicit Economies and Armed Control in the Triple Border Region of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru

    "Peace and security in the Amazon are impossible without Indigenous peoples at the heart of the solution."

    August 19, 2025
    7,053 views
    4 min read

    In the Shadows of the State

    Illicit Economies and Armed Control in the Triple Border Region of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru

    This report calls for a regional strategy centered on environmental protection, state-building, and community governance.

    August 2025
    7,179 views
    1 min read

    Wampís Territorial Guards Attacked While Defending Their Lands

    Peruvian government fails to deliver on anti-mining commitments

    "The Wampis have to confront illegal gold miners alone, despite the Peruvian government's supposed offensive against organized crime promoting gold exploitation."

    July 15, 2025
    6,436 views
    2 min read

    Amazon Crime Crisis: U.N. Backs Indigenous Demands

    U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues: governments and UNODC must include Indigenous Peoples in anti-crime and environmental policies

    Amazonian Indigenous leaders delivered a clear and urgent message: organized crime and illegal economies are devastating the Amazon and threatening the survival of Indigenous Peoples.

    July 1, 2025
    6,783 views
    5 min read

    Drug Trafficking in Indigenous Territories of the Peruvian Amazon

    Routes, Impacts, and Failed Policies

    In Peru, drug trafficking is one of the main threats to the Amazon and Indigenous peoples. This report presents concrete proposals to reposition Indigenous peoples not only as victims, but as political actors who can help shape solutions.

    May 2025
    5,830 views
    1 min read

    The Wisdom That Panduro Took With Him

    Three years after the army perpetrated the Alto Remanso massacre, in which several civilians were killed, a community that almost disappeared is trying to recover from the absence of the leader who healed them and taught them their language

    Voragine | Pablo Panduro was killed on March 28, 2022 during an army operation in which 11 people were killed, and which was carried out against the Border Command, a FARC dissident group that controls most of Putumayo.

    April 8, 2025
    2,505 views
    15 min read

    The Kakataibo’s Fight for Survival Against Corruption and Amazon Crime

    A new, groundbreaking multimedia report exposes the perpetrators of land dispossession in the ancestral homelands of the last Kakataibo Indigenous peoples of Peru

    New multimedia report exposes the complex web of deforestation, drug trafficking, and state complicity threatening the ancestral homelands of the last Kakataibo Indigenous peoples of Peru.

    December 19, 2024
    2,991 views
    3 min read

    Indigenous Peoples on the Front Lines of Criminal Economies in the Amazon Fight Back at COP16

    "Paper declarations, small projects, and militaristic approaches are failing to combat illegal mining and drug trafficking"

    "Prior consultation must be a key tool for implementing strategies to fight drug trafficking in the Amazon. Enough with empty declarations. We need real combined efforts between governments and our organizations if we want to defeat criminal economies."

    October 31, 2024
    4,472 views
    2 min read

    Indigenous Leaders Confront Criminal Economies at the U.N.

    As transnational criminal economies increasingly threaten the Amazon rainforest, Indigenous rights, and our global climate, Peruvian Indigenous leaders Miguel Guimaraes and Herlín Odicio traveled to Vienna to make one thing clear: the world must act now

    “Indigenous leaders who protect the Amazon are being assassinated or live under constant threat. Criminal actors pollute our rivers, dispossess our territories, recruit our children, violate our peoples, and even threaten the survival of those in voluntary isolation.”

    October 22, 2024
    1,500 views
    5 min read

    Gold, Gangs, and Governance

    How Illegal Mining and Organized Crime Threaten Ecuador's Amazon and Its Indigenous Peoples

    This report exposes how criminal economies not only pose a threat to Indigenous peoples but also severely compromise the ecological integrity of the Amazon.

    September 2024
    1,912 views
    1 min read

    Terror and Cocaine in the Peruvian Jungle

    A new VICE documentary “Terror & Cocaine in the Peruvian Jungle” tells the story of Indigenous resistance to illegal economies in the Amazon. #AmazonUnderworld

    August 13, 2024
    1,481 views
    2 min read