Following years of multiple crises in the Amazon amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we began to see hope on the horizon in 2021-2022. It was a monumental year defending the Amazon and human rights!
Brazil
Brazilian Indigenous Leader Alessandra Munduruku Awarded Goldman Prize
We celebrate and honor the life and journey of resistance by the great Indigenous leader Alessandra Munduruku. May her example serve as a source of inspiration and strength to continue our work in defense of the Amazon in solidarity with all Indigenous peoples.
Amazon Indigenous Woman Wins Goldman Environment Prize
Associated Press | “This award is an opportunity to draw attention to the demarcation of the Sawre Muybu territory. It is our top priority, along with the expulsion of illegal miners.”
New Toolkit Guides Investors on Indigenous Rights Respect
Toolkit and website provides innovative guidance for institutional investors on due diligence for Indigenous rights, which is a responsibility of investors and is crucial for climate stability, biodiversity protection, and financial risk management
New York, NY —Today, Amazon Watch published Respecting Indigenous Rights: An Actionable Toolkit for Institutional Investors, an Indigenous-led guide for pension funds, asset managers, and other institutional investors on their responsibility to respect the rights of Indigenous peoples.
Respecting Indigenous Rights
An Actionable Due Diligence Toolkit for Institutional Investors
The rights of Indigenous peoples are protected by a robust and growing body of international human rights instruments and jurisprudence. This Toolkit provides practical guidance and tools for institutional investors to learn about and meet their responsibility to respect Indigenous peoples’ rights, and in turn, avoid financial, and reputational...
Amazon Watch is building on more than 25 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.
How We Leverage “Shareholder Season” for the Amazon
This April and May, the biggest financial backers of corporations that induce climate change and disregard rights will convene for their Annual General Meetings. We hope to push them to vote yes on important climate and Indigenous rights resolutions.
Women Must Be Protagonists in Solving the Climate Crisis
As the most vulnerable population, particularly those at the intersection of the environment and Indigeneity, women should take part in the development of global climate solutions
"We will all be affected by climate change." The truth is that some will face the impacts of this process much more than others. And it is women and girls who are the most vulnerable, with Black and Indigenous women being even more exposed.
UN Human Rights Committee Calls on China for Mechanisms to Investigate and Punish Harmful Activities of Its Companies and Banks Abroad
"Having the Committee recommend that Chinese companies and banks be held legally responsible for human rights abuses arising from their operations abroad is not only a step forward in protecting Chinese investment, but also in guaranteeing human rights in any context of transnational capitalism."
China's Human Rights Obligations in Relation to Business Activities in Latin America
Chinese business activities in Latin America have increased at an unprecedented rate – impacting the Ecuadorian Amazon. Through the United Nations, those Latin American countries are granted processes to advocate for the respect of human rights, and when they are not, it provides external oversight to guide reparation and compliance.
Amazonian Women Mobilize on International Women’s Day
This International Women’s Day 2023, we celebrated Indigenous women as life-givers, wisdom keepers, and leaders while denouncing violence against women and Mother Earth.
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.
Are Californians Destroying the Amazon? A Sebastião Salgado Exhibit Raises Hard Questions
Los Angeles Times | “If we want to protect our climate, if we want to stop the drought, stop the further climate chaos that we’re in, whether it’s fires or floods or droughts, we need to end our addiction to Amazon crude.”
Illegal Gold Mining Brought Death, Disease, and Violence to the Yanomami in Brazil
This practice must cease, for the future of the Amazon and its peoples
The shocking images of death and destruction of the Yanomami people and their lands that recently swept the world reestablish a tragedy foretold.
The Transformative Power of Reciprocity and Gratitude
“Gratitude is so much more than a polite thank you. It is the thread that connects us in a deep relationship. Gratitude and reciprocity are the currency for a giving economy or regenerative economy.”
Brazilian Government Launches Huge Operation to Remove Illegal Miners from Yanomami Lands in the Amazon
Actions began this Monday with support from special forces; approximately 25,000 miners are estimated to have flocked into the territory, bringing violence, disease, and destruction
The Brazilian government has initiated operations aimed at dismantling extensive illegal gold mining activities in the Amazon’s Yanomami Indigenous Land. The objective is to drive tens of thousands of illegal miners from the country’s largest Indigenous reserve after they invaded the territory over a span of several years.
Two Brazilian Indigenous Youths Are Murdered, Shot in the Back Amid Conflicts Over Land
São Paulo, Brazil – Two youths, Nawir Brito de Jesus, 17, and Samuel Cristiano do Amor Divino, 25, of Brazil’s Indigenous Pataxó people, were brutally murdered on Tuesday, January 17, 2023, in the municipality of Itabela, in southern Bahia state.
Movement Against Belo Sun Gains Momentum in Canada
With allies in power, including Environmental Minister Marina Silva and Indigenous Peoples' Minister Sonia Guajajara, what opportunities are now available to halt mining in the Amazon?
We count on the positive energy and mobilization of our supporters so that, together with our partners on the ground in Canada and our allies in the new Brazilian government, we can evaluate and expose the climatic risks of destroying an ecosystem as critical as that of the Volta Grande do Xingu, still threatened by Canadian mining company Belo...
Brazil at a Turning Point: “Never Again Without Us!”
Brazil's Indigenous peoples take back the right to decide over their lives and territories under the Lula government
For the first time, a government has put Indigenous peoples at the center, recognizing their ancestral right to decide over their lives and territories.
In Sweeping Moves, President Lula Reestablished the Amazon Fund and Signed Environmental Executive Orders
President Lula’s decrees reinstated environmental funding programs, such as the Amazon Fund, revoked a Bolsonaro decree facilitating artisanal Amazon mining, reestablished deforestation control plans, and renamed the Ministry of Environment to include the term Climate Change
“After four years of relentless dismantling of socio-environmental legislation, Lula’s new government is beginning to rebuild the fundamental norms eviscerated by the Bolsonaro regime."
Amazon Watch at COP15 in Defense of Biodiversity and Indigenous Rights!
Canadian mining company Belo Sun’s stock took a major hit as our new report exposed major risks to investors during COP
Indigenous communities are uniquely qualified to speak on the intersections between mining and biodiversity: Indigenous lands make up around 20% of the Earth’s territory, containing 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity, requiring Indigenous peoples to be at the forefront of all decision-making regarding any global climate commitments.
Ziggy Marley, Barbra Streisand, Rosario Dawson, and Artists Release Call for a Global Agreement to Protect 80% of the Amazon Rainforest by 2025 at COP15
“The Indigenous people of Amazonia have lived in balance with the rainforest for centuries. Our collective future requires that we listen to the Indigenous voices on the front lines. Amazonian governments and world leaders must protect 80% of the Amazon by 2025”
COP15: Canadian Mining Corp. Belo Sun Stock Takes Major Hit Before Finance Day at U.N. Biodiversity Summit
“Belo Sun’s suspended environmental license, repeated violations of Indigenous rights, and severe threats to biodiversity and ecosystem health in the Amazon paint a clear picture: the market clearly shows that any company or financial institution foolish enough to invest in or acquire Belo Sun would risk its entire investment.”
Canadian Gold Miner Belo Sun Accused of Misleading Investors
Environmental advocate: "No investor should even think of touching this company"
Financial Post | “We are putting any institution or company looking to invest in or acquire Belo Sun on notice: this is a bad actor selling a dangerous project. Anyone looking to get involved with it will be shouldering serious risk and will be complicit in the continued threats to the Amazon rainforest, Indigenous and traditional peoples, and the global climate.”
Belo Sun’s Gold Project in the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest Poses Significant Risks to Investors, Forest Guardians, and Biodiversity, Report Says
Investments in the Canadian mining company can create enormous political, legal, reputational, climate, and social risks for financial firms
Montreal, Canada - Investors may be exposed to severe risks by maintaining their investments in the Canadian mining company Belo Sun, a new report published today by Amazon Watch shows.
The Risks of Investing in Belo Sun
Belo Sun's executives have repeatedly and publicly downplayed the social, environmental, and legal risks of the Volta Grande Project, thereby heightening risks for current and potential investors.
Bank of Montreal’s Links to Illegal Amazon Deforestation Condemned by Indigenous Leaders
“While Canada hosts a critical summit to determine the future of our planet’s remaining biodiversity, we came to denounce that one of its leading banks is financing a Brazilian company responsible for untold forest destruction and biodiversity loss, including on Amazonian Indigenous lands."
Royal Bank of Canada Denounced for Financing Gold Miner Belo Sun During Biodiversity Summit
“Today’s action outside of the Royal Bank of Canada is meant to shine a spotlight on how the Canadian mining company Belo Sun poses grave, unacceptable, and irreversible risks to Amazonian biodiversity."
Reflections on Human Rights and Hope from COP27
After two weeks in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt for the Climate COP27 (The United Nations Conference of Parties on Climate Change), I’m reflecting on our purpose in attending and the outcomes.
Indigenous Delegation to Hold World Leaders Accountable for Increasing threats to Amazonian Biodiversity At COP15
Leaders from Brazil and Ecuador will be in Montreal to draw attention to extractive industries, especially mining, threatening the Amazon rainforest
Amazon Watch is traveling to 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) as part of an Amazonian Indigenous delegation of multiple coalitions and nations to draw attention to the extractive industries, especially mining, threatening biodiversity loss in the Amazon rainforest and threatening human rights across the biome.
