Brasília, Brazil and Oakland, USA – U.S.-based financial institutions play a key role in enabling the destructive actions of companies linked to violations of Indigenous rights and conflicts in Indigenous territories in the Brazilian Amazon, according to a new report published today by the Association of Brazil's Indigenous Peoples (APIB) and...
BlackRock
Complicity in Destruction III
How Global Corporations Enable Violations of Indigenous Peoples' Rights in The Brazilian Amazon
This new report, published by the Association of Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples in partnership with Amazon Watch, reveals how a network of leading international financial institutions is linked to conflicts on Indigenous lands, illegal deforestation, land grabbing, the weakening of environmental protections, and the production and export of conflict...
Amazon Fires Mapping: Exposing the Destruction with Data
Bolsonaro and his henchmen would have us believe that "the Amazon doesn't catch fire," "the Amazon isn't burning," or even that "Africa is burning much more than Brazil." Yet these flimsy arguments cannot withstand the accurate documentation of how this year's heartbreaking burning season has laid waste to Brazilian ecosystems while incinerating...
Brazil’s Burning Season: The Facts About Amazon Fires
In August of 2019, images of the Amazon rainforest on fire shocked the global consciousness. The Amazon is on fire once again this year, and for most this is undebatable. Nasa, Inpe, and MAAP all publish monthly reports outlining the deforestation and subsequent fires destroying the Amazon. Yet, the Bolsonaro administration has launched a public...
Climate Activists Ramp Up Pressure on BlackRock During Fires Week of Action
Despite positioning itself earlier this year as a financial firm that leads on climate, BlackRock continues to be a major financial investor in the deforestation commodity companies currently fueling the fires in the Amazon. BlackRock is a top investor in deforestation-risk commodities around the world, and despite vague commitments to prioritize...
Amazon Watch is building on more than 25 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.
Climate Activists Stage Direct Action Against BlackRock’s Continued Financing of Amazon Fires
Activists post decals of Amazon fire destruction on BlackRock's San Francisco and New York headquarters calling out financier for climate commitments that fail to address deforestation and Indigenous rights violations
"According to MAAP, as of August 30th of this year, over 1.1 million acres (453,000 hectares) of recently deforested areas have burned in the Brazilian Amazon. Given the urgency of what's happening in the Amazon today, it's encouraging to see that activists are turning out from coast to coast to hold BlackRock accountable for its contributions to...
The Amazon’s Burning Season Is a Call to Action
In response to this worsening crisis, Amazon Watch is calling for an #AmazonCeasefire by mounting a communications, advocacy, and direct relief campaign alongside a coalition of Brazilian and global allies. We are shining a spotlight on the true drivers of today's crisis – from political delinquency to market complicity – while also targeting...
Is BlackRock the New Vampire Squid?
The investment giant casts itself as socially responsible while contributing to the climate catastrophe, evading regulatory scrutiny, and angling to influence a Biden administration
The New Republic | Luiz Eloy, a member of the Terena people and a lawyer with the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, said in an email that BlackRock has "changed absolutely nothing to alter its investment strategy, which pours money into the very companies that brutalize us and take down forests on an industrial scale. Talk means nothing to us, not after...
"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...
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...
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
BlackRock's Big Problem | 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...
Report Names the Banks Financing Destructive Oil Projects in the Amazon
Funding these projects runs counter to these companies' own statements of support for climate actions, including the Paris climate agreement, activists say
Mongabay | Five of the biggest financial institutions in the world invested a combined $6 billion in oil extraction projects in the western Amazon between 2017 and 2019. According to Moira Birss of Amazon Watch, only pressure from civil society can stop the extraction of these natural resources without guaranteeing the conservation of the environment and the...
Investor Eye on the Amazon
A primer for shareholders concerned about rainforest protection and human rights
The Investor Eye on the Amazon newsletter serves as a resource for socially-responsible investors, industry analysts, and researchers looking to better understand the risks associated with financing climate-damaging industries in the Amazon, and what they can do to protect the region.
Goldman Sachs' Climate Action Is Not Enough
"If Goldman truly wants to be a 'sustainability' leader, it must end corporate financing for fossil fuel expansion in the Amazon and around the world – particularly when that expansion happens on Indigenous territories."
HSBC Must Step Up Its Climate Action and Stakeholder Participation
"If HSBC truly wants to live up to its responsibility to communities and its pledge to a low-carbon economy, it must end corporate financing for fossil fuel expansion in the Amazon and around the world – particularly when that expansion happens on Indigenous territories."
Citi's New Environmental and Social Policy Falls Short
Citigroup's unambitious new policy, released just before its annual general meeting of shareholders, ignores the climate and Indigenous rights risks of oil drilling in the Amazon
"If Citi truly cares about being a leader on climate and Indigenous rights, it must end corporate financing for fossil fuel expansion in the Amazon and around the world – particularly when that expansion is planned for the territories of Indigenous peoples."
Drilling in the Amazon? Global Financiers Say Yes
TriplePundit | "The Amazon rainforest is crucial to climate stability, and oil drilling expansion is one of the greatest threats to it," said Moira Birss, campaign director of the finance program at Amazon Watch.
Building People Power to End Investment in Amazon Crude
Building People Power to End Investment in Amazon Crude is a 4-page refresher for activists who want to better understand the role that major financial institutions play in escalating the climate crisis. It includes detailed data from the latest Amazon Watch research on the total debt and equity financing provided by five major firms to companies...
Investing in Amazon Crude
The Network of Global Financiers and Oil Companies Driving the Amazon Toward Collapse
This report outlines in detail the ways that five of the world's most powerful financial institutions are actively contributing to climate change by providing debt and equity financing for crude oil extraction projects in the Amazon. It highlights key examples of on-the-ground Indigenous resistance to oil extraction, which is not only terrible for...
New Report Highlights Links Between Big Finance and Amazon Crude
Activists urged to Join the #StopTheMoneyPipeline to take on Wall Street!
In our newest report, Investing in Amazon Crude, and activist guide, Building People Power to End Investment in Amazon Crude, Amazon Watch details the ways that five of the world's most powerful financial institutions – Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and BlackRock – actively contribute to climate change by providing debt and...
U.S. Firms Bankroll Oil Extraction in the Amazon – Report
E&E News | Major U.S. financial institutions are funneling billions of dollars into crude oil expansion in the western Amazon rainforest, according to a report released today that underscored Indigenous peoples' long-standing opposition to fossil fuel extraction on ancestral lands.
Report: The Five Biggest Financiers of New Amazon Oil Boom
BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, HSBC, and JP Morgan Chase defy their own commitments by backing dangerous oil and gas extraction in the western Amazon
Oakland, CA – A report released today by Amazon Watch shows how five American and British financial institutions are actively accelerating climate change and human rights abuses by providing billions of dollars in debt and equity financing for crude oil extraction projects in the western Amazon. Already, millions of acres of the western Amazon...
Baby Steps from Leading Financiers Aren't Enough to Address the Climate Emergency
It shouldn't take a million baby steps for the finance sector to adopt measurable policies that prioritize Indigenous rights and prohibit deforestation and fossil fuel extraction. JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock need to go much further. They need to stand up and make sweeping changes to their policies, now.
Did U.S. Companies and Consumers Help Fuel the Fires in the Amazon Rainforest?
CBS News | "In the Brazilian Amazon, which of course is where the fires that caught the world's attention in August are located, the main drivers [of deforestation] are the agribusiness industry," said Moira Birss of Amazon Watch.
BlackRock's Agribusiness Engagement Guidelines Draw Scrutiny from Environmental Groups
Amazon Watch and Friends of the Earth demand real action on deforestation and human rights
"BlackRock is clearly feeling the pressure from the climate and Indigenous rights movement to align its investment practices with a sustainable world, which includes how it engages with and invests in agribusiness," said Moira Birss, Climate and Finance Director at Amazon Watch. "Its new statement identifies many of the key risk factors of the...
BlackRock Issues Investment Stewardship Statement on Agribusiness
"BlackRock is clearly feeling the pressure from the climate and Indigenous rights movement to align its investment practices with a sustainable world, which includes how it engages with and invests in agribusiness," said Moira Birss, Climate and Finance Director at Amazon Watch.
Pressure from Climate Campaigners Forces BlackRock to Prioritize Sustainability in Its Investments
In direct response to our campaign demands, BlackRock – the largest asset management company and the largest investor in fossil fuel industries worldwide – publicly committed to "fundamentally reshape finance to deal with climate change."
BlackRock Responds to Demands for Stronger Climate Action with Bold New Commitments
The company still remains the largest investor in coal, oil, gas, and the companies driving deforestation
"This announcement is a major step in the right direction for BlackRock," said Moira Birss, Finance Campaign Director at Amazon Watch. However, It still leaves questions about how it plans to address the fact that it is the world's biggest investor in deforestation."
The Climate Movement Is Going After Wall Street
A new effort, Stop the Money Pipeline, aims to end the financing of fossil fuels
A coalition of some of the nation's leading climate, youth, and Indigenous organizations launched a major new mobilization, Stop the Money Pipeline, that will pressure banks, insurance companies and asset managers to stop financing fossil fuels and deforestation and start respecting human rights and Indigenous sovereignty.
