“We must halt all mining ventures in the Amazon, as they pose grave and irreversible threats to global climate stability and the future of humanity.”
Belo Monte
Guardians Unite: Defending the Xingu Against Belo Sun’s Threat
The Gathering was a key moment to reaffirm our collective resistance and understand the realities of communities grappling not only with the disastrous Belo Monte hydroelectric dam but also the looming threat of Belo Sun’s proposed mine.
Belo Sun Mining Seeks to Criminalize Amazon Defenders
The Canadian gold mining company’s criminal lawsuit attempts to silence and intimidate defenders of the Volta Grande do Xingú, including community leaders, Amazon Watch, and other environmental and human rights activists
In a blatant effort to intimidate and silence its critics, Belo Sun Mining has filed a criminal lawsuit targeting more than 30 people – most of them small-scale farmers – as well as community leaders, environmental defenders, researchers, and representatives of Brazilian and international organizations.
Belo Sun Mining Company Legally Harasses Volta Grande do Xingu Community Leaders, Environmental and Human Rights Defenders
"Belo Sun is expelling us from our ancestral territory. It robs us of our souls by distancing us from our traditional practices and culture. And now it's trying to criminalize us as invaders of our own land."
Pulse, Xingu! The Way to Revive the Volta Grande after Belo Monte
Juruna researchers and riverine people from Volta Grande do Xingu, with academics from different areas of science, propose the Piracemas Hydrogram, a necessary action for fish to reproduce again
Instituto Socioambiental | The Xingu River needs to pulsate for life to exist. The flood pulse is the source of the life cycle in most Amazonian rivers. The Juruna Yudjá of the Paquiçamba Indigenous Land and the riverside communities of Volta Grande do Xingu have known this for a long time.
Amazon Watch is building on more than 25 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.
Canada’s Belo Sun Mining Is Still Threatening the Brazilian Amazon
The Canadian mining company Belo Sun continues to threaten life in the Volta Grande do Xingu, and our campaign to halt the proposed largest open-pit gold mine in Brazil at the heart of the Amazon rainforest is in full swing.
Second Chance for Lula as Controversial Amazon Dam Goes Up for Renewal
Mongabay | “What would be great is if that dam was gone. But there is another plan that would allow the waters to reach the lowland breeding grounds and that is a solution that we could live with.”
Women Defenders for Territories Free of Mining!
Celebrate International Women's Day by meeting defenders on the front lines of the Mining Out of the Amazon movement
Across the Amazon Basin, women are organizing in defense of life, rights, and territories, and are a critical part of the front lines movement resisting increasing threats such as mining.
Portraits of Women Defenders Uniting Across the Amazon
Indigenous women across the Amazon are coming together like never before to protect and defend our lives, rights, bodies, and territories in the face of ever-increasing threats.
NGOs Release Letter Accusing Brazilian State of Pará of Greenwashing Through Carbon Credit Schemes
Last Saturday, the government of Pará (along with other Amazon governors) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the LEAF Coalition to boost actions regarding sustainability and the bio-economy. While hailed by its advocates as an innovative step forward in halting deforestation, there are serious greenwashing concerns regarding the...
Mining on Indigenous Territories Brings Ecological Devastation, Land Invasions, and 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...
Protest Statement: Damn Those Who Celebrate Belo Monte!
A Statement of Protest from Movimento Xingu Vivo para Sempre (Xingu Alive Forever Movement)
At a time when the people of the Xingu agonize over their lack of water, Bolsonaro hails the final turbine of Belo Monte. At a time when the fish of the Xingu River are reduced to skin and spine because there are no more nutrients in the river, Bolsonaro celebrates Belo Monte. When the forest tumbles like it never has before in the areas of Belo...
Complicity in Destruction II
As the world's largest rainforest, the Amazon provides 20% of our oxygen, houses 10% of the planet's biodiversity, and helps stabilize the global climate. The world needs it to survive. None understand this better than the indigenous peoples and traditional communities who call it home, and are proven to be its best stewards. Despite their...
Emboldened by Bolsonaro, Armed Invaders Encroach on Brazil’s Tribal Lands
Ten days after Brazil's right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro took office, dozens of men entered protected indigenous land in a remote corner of the Amazon, hacking a pathway beneath the jungle canopy. Inspired by Bolsonaro's vow to open more native territory to commercial development, the men, armed with machetes, chainsaws and firearms, had come...
Jair Bolsonaro Launches Assault on Amazon Rainforest Protections
"There will be an increase in deforestation and violence against indigenous people," said Dinaman Tuxá, the executive coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous People of Brazil. "Indigenous people are defenders and protectors of the environment."
US Funds with Big Amazon Farming Stakes Face Bolsonaro Choice
Amazon Watch is running a campaign against BlackRock for its investments in companies that cause deforestation in the Amazon. In the past, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has called on companies to invest with social and climate impact in mind.
Strict Amazon Protections Made Brazilian Farmers More Productive, New Research Shows
Strong environmental protections are necessary to save the Amazon, protecting Brazil and the world from the loss of this critical, fragile habitat. Far from being bad for business, Brazil's Amazonian protections help sustain the country as a global breadbasket. If Bolsonaro scraps them, he won't just imperil a legendary rainforest. He'll hurt...
Jair Bolsonaro: Looming Threat to the Amazon and Global Climate?
With little more than a week to go until a runoff election, far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro – who has affirmed his intention to withdraw Brazil from the Paris Climate Agreement – continues to be the rising political star in the world's eighth biggest economy, and the nation that stands as guardian to a major portion of the Amazon...
The Amazon on the Brink
Once a leader in protecting the region's vast forests, Brazil is now moving in the opposite direction
The New York Times | If the government's retrenchment on environmental protection continues, there may soon be nothing to stop the chain saws on the Amazonian frontier, where the rule of law can be weak and land is frequently seized and cleared illegally. This has implications beyond Brazil. The Amazon's lush forests make up the largest reserve of carbon dioxide on...
Brazilian Legislators Break Law, Attack Amazon, Trade Freely with World: Report
Mongabay | A report published this week by Amazon Watch reveals that six prominent Brazilian politicians – members of the bancada ruralista agribusiness lobby and all but one up for election in October – have been found guilty of serious environmental, economic, and social crimes and offenses.
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...
Complicity in Destruction
How northern consumers and financiers sustain the assault on the Brazilian Amazon and its peoples
Despite their importance, the Brazilian Amazon and its peoples are suffering the worst assault in a generation. Deforestation is mounting steadily while hard-fought environmental and human rights protections, critical to the future of the rainforest, are under serious attack. Indigenous and traditional communities themselves suffer...
Belo Monte: There Is Nothing Green or Sustainable About These Mega-dams
The Conversation | Belo Monte is just one of many dams across the globe that have been justified – and funded – as sustainable pursuits. Yet, this conflates the ends with the means. Hydroelectricity may appear relatively 'clean' but the process in which a mega-dam is built is far from it.
Brazil’s Political Storm Driving Amazon Deforestation Higher
Mongabay | Many experts aren't surprised by these land-grabber assaults, even though the Apyterewa preserve lies within the area of influence of the giant Belo Monte dam built on the Xingu River, and even though one of the conditions for the dam's construction, agreed to in 2010, was that the government protect this territory and evict all illegal intruders...
NGOs Denounce Tapajós Basin Intimidation, Violence, Brazil Inaction
The 38 NGOs include Amazon Watch, Instituto Socioambiental, and WWF Brasil
Mongabay | Thirty-eight national and international NGOs issued a strongly worded statement demanding the Brazilian government uphold environmental laws, act on indigenous rights violations, and end escalating intimidation by the builders of hydroelectric dams on the Teles Pires River. Also condemned was the Temer administration's failure to prosecute illegal...
World Water Day: Deadly Plight of Brazil’s River Defenders Goes Unheard
At a high-level talking shop for the global water industry in Brazil, river defenders and community activists – who are often murdered or criminalized for trying to protect their resources – have set up an alternative forum to share their stories
The Guardian | Alessandria Munduruku described how women have moved to the forefront of the community's campaign to protect territory. "The government doesn't care for us, only for agribusiness so our struggle is very difficult. We are up against illegal mines, loggers, ports, roads, agribusiness and investors from China and Canada," she said. "The men are weak...
They Owned an Island, Now They Are Urban Poor
Construction of the Belo Monte dam has cast men, women and children who lived rich lives along the Xingu River to the outskirts of Altamira, Brazil’s most violent city. Here, to the sound of gunfire, they must live behind barred windows, and buy food with money they’ve never had – or needed before
The Guardian | "I had a better life than anyone in São Paulo. If I wanted to work my land, I did. If I didn't, the land would be there the next day. If I wanted to fish, I did, but if I'd rather pick açaí, I did. I had a river, I had woods, I had tranquility. On the island, I didn't have any doors. I had a place ... And on the island, we didn't get sick."
Mega-Dams May Be History in the Brazilian Amazon!
Last week's announcement should be celebrated as a tentative victory, albeit a fragile one that demands vigilance as Brazil continues to weather political and financial instability. This victory will only become a reality when we insist it be upheld. We owe this to our on-the-ground partners for all they do on our behalf to defend this life-giving...
The Era of Mega Hydropower in Brazilian Amazon Appears Over
"This policy change reflects not just Brazil's tough economic realities, but also the growing impact of indigenous peoples, social movements and their allies, who have mobilized in an unprecedented way to protect their rights and their rivers, lives and livelihoods, and will continue to do so as long as threats to their homes and the Amazon...
