Tomorrow Amazon Watch will be holding a fundraising luncheon celebrating its 15 years as a leader of innovative engagement in the Amazon rainforest environmental movement.
Climate Change
Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon up 15%
AFP | Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon increased by 15 percent during the past 12 months, the National Institute for Space Research said.
Willie Nelson Gets Pumped About Biofuel and the Amazon
SF Wire | When the nonprofit Amazon Watch decided to co-host a fundraiser with Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance, they read the bumper sticker. By thinking global, acting local, and sharing resources, two small nonprofits were able to complement each other's work and reach out to mutually sympathetic donors.
Killing of Brazilian Environmental Activists a Test of the Rousseff Government
Amazon Watch asks, "Will they investigate and prosecute?"
Al Jazeera | The spate of recent high-profile assassinations of anti-logging campaigners in Brazil underscores the deadly risks of speaking out on behalf of the environment.
Peruvians Lead Charge for Indigenous Rights at World Bank Climate Fund
Peru is emerging as one of the key laboratories for a big experiment to save the world's remaining tropical forests known as REDD.
Amazon Watch is building on more than 25 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.
BID en la Mira (IDB Watch)
A publication that exposes the failures of the Inter-American Bank.
IDB Annual Meeting Marked by Lack of Progress in a Sustainable Development Agenda
Calgary, Canada – Civil society representatives from Latin America recently attended the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Annual Meeting along with Amazon Watch to monitor progress of a new reform agenda adopted by the Bank last year and on which the Bank’s recapitalization is conditioned.
¿Realmente Se Construye una Agenda Común entre el BID y la Sociedad Civil?
Otra oportunidad perdida para el Banco
Calgary, Canada – Organizaciones de la Sociedad Civil presentes en la Reunión Anual del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) ven con gran preocupación el tratamiento de la participación de la sociedad civil en las actividades del banco.
Delegación Latinoamericana de la Sociedad Civil Llega a Reunión Anual del BID
Grupo pide resultados concretos sobre la estrategia de cambio climático y salvaguardas como condición para el aumento de capital
Calgary, Canada – Una delegación latinoamericana de la sociedad civil llego a Calgary esta semana para la reunión anual del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo.
REDD Flags: Potential Problems with Investing in Forest Offsets
Why Investing in Forest Offsets Might Cause More Problems Than It Solves
Amazon Watch | Reducing the rates of rainforest deforestation is a goal universally shared by environmental groups like Amazon Watch. The devil, as always, is in the details, many of which have yet to be agreed upon or are being finalized without meaningful involvement of impacted stakeholders.
Amazon Watch Elevates Indigenous Voices at UN Climate Talks
A short video featuring the voices of Indigenous leaders Marlon Santi, Sonia Guajajara, and Pablo Salon.
Amazonian Voices at the UN Climate Summit in Cancún
Amazon Watch attended the Cancun climate talks where we worked to elevate the voices of our Amazonian Indigenous allies.
Drought Brings Amazon Tributary to Lowest Level in a Century
Meteorologists and Activists Divided on Causes of Drought with Some Pointing to Climate Change as a Factor
The Guardian UK | One of the most important tributaries of the Amazon river has fallen to its lowest level in over a century, following a fierce drought that has isolated tens of thousands of rainforest inhabitants and raised concerns about the possible impact of climate change on the region.
Confronting Climate Change: Voices from the Rainforest
We were crowded around a table in a packed cafeteria, the roar of some 20,000 other COP 15 delegates making my translation job all the harder. I was sitting next to Marlon Santi, president of Ecuador’s powerful national indigenous organization CONAIE. On my left was Tito Puanchir, president of the country’s Amazonian indigenous confederation...
Yasuni-ITT: Oil Change or More of the Same?
The Ishpingo, Tambococha, Tiputini oil fields are Ecuador's largest. According to estimates, they could yield up to 900 million barrels of heavy crude. But in a cruel twist of geologic fate, they happen to lie beneath one of the most biodiverse places on the planet – Yasuni National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Glacial Retreat: Ecuador's Ticking Environmental Time Bomb
Cayambe's receding ice mass highlights how global warming could leave some of the world's poorest people without water
The Guardian UK | Where, just 25 years ago, there had been a three-kilometre long, 60-metre thick avalanche of ice, tumbling off the peak, we gazed down on bare, black rock. A whole valley once filled with ice was mostly empty. The snout of the glacier was 1,800 ft higher than it had been.
Ecuador's Untapped Oil The value of 846 million barrels of oil left in the ground: priceless
Los Angeles Times | What is a barrel of oil worth? Generally, the answer depends on a number of factors, including the mood of the commodities markets, the grade of the oil and demand at the gas pump.
Ecuador Signs $3.6 Billion Deal Not to Exploit Oil-Rich Amazon Reserve
The Guardian | ioneering deal signed with UN sets up trust fund by wealthy countries worth half expected earnings from potential sale of oil
Ecuador Signs Historic Yasuni-ITT Deal with UNDP To Keep Oil in the Soil and CO2 out of the Atmosphere
Praise for Pioneering Proposal is Mixed with Concerns by Indigenous Groups Over New Drilling Planned in Southern Ecuador's Pristine Rainforests
Quito, Ecuador – Ecuador plans to sign an agreement today with the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) that will open an international trust fund to receive donations supporting the government's proposal to keep some 900 million barrels of oil in the ground.
Acción Ecológica: ¿Qué celebramos con la firma del fideicomiso de la iniciativa Yasuní?
La firma del fideicomiso es un paso importante pues sin él la iniciativa Yasuní no tendría posibilidades de continuar, es más podríamos decir que después de 3 años empieza a concretarse ahora.
Entre todo/as lo logramos: La firma del fideicomiso para la Iniciativa Yasuní-ITT
Alberto AcostaUn día después de la conmemoración del segundo bicentenario del asesinato de los patriotas por parte de las tropas españolas en la ciudad de Quito, el día 2 de agosto del 2010, en el marco de la Iniciativa Yasuní-ITT
En el Dia de la Tierra CONAIE Pone su Voz en la Cumbre de los Pueblos, Cambio Climatico y Derechos de la Madre Tierra
CONAIE Rechaza Aprobación de Ley de Agua y Plan B para Explotar el Yasuní ITT
Representantes de la Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador CONAIE y su máximo líder Marlon Santi, prota
The Wrong Kind of Green
The Nation Magazine | Why did America's leading environmental groups jet to Copenhagen and lobby for policies that will lead to the faster death of the rainforests–and runaway global warming? Why are their lobbyists on Capitol Hill dismissing the only real solutions to climate change as "unworkable" and "unrealistic," as though they we
Yasuní-ITT: Chronicle of a Death Foretold?
by Kevin Koenig, Northern Amazon Program CoordinatorEcuador's historic proposal to keep some 850 million barrels of crude that lay beneath the country's stunning Yasuní National Park hit a familiar roadblock last weekend, as President Rafael Correa undermined his own negotiating team, denounced foreign don
Ecuador Foreign Minister, criticized for Amazon project, quits
Reuters | QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Fander Falconi stepped down Tuesday, a source at the ministry said, after President Rafael Correa criticized the way that Falconi was negotiating an Amazon rain forest protection project."He resigned this morning," said the source, who has direct knowledge of the situation
Se resquebraja el proyecto Yasuní
BBC | Quito–El proyecto Yasuní-ITT, que busca dejar petróleo bajo tierra en la Amazonia ecuatoriana a cambio de un aporte económico de la comunidad internacional, se resquebraja.
Ecuador Minister Resigns Over Amazon Oil Project
AP | QUITO, Ecuador (AP) – Ecuador's foreign minister resigned Tuesday after President Rafael Correa criticized his handling of negotiations to prevent oil drilling in a pristine Amazon reserve.Fander Falconi was the third government official to resign over a plan to seek international donations of $3 billion over the nex
US sabotages negotiations on draft REDD text
by Chris Lang / www.redd-monitor.org(bellacenter-COP15-Copenhagen, Denmark)– Discussions late into the night on Monday (14 December 2009) in Copenhagen made the REDD text worse. The main culprits were the US and Colombia.
Ecuador's Amazonian Indian confederation faces varied threats
Indian Country Today | Approximately 100 representatives of Ecuador's Amazonian Indian nations recently gathered in the community of Union Base, near the southeastern town of Puyo, to celebrate the inauguration of new leadership for the Confederation of Indigenous Nations of the Ecuadorian Amazon (CONFENIAE).The ceremony was held in Spanish
