Amazon Watch

Corporate Accountability

In 2024, Anti-Chevron Day Has Become Anti-Chevron Month

With too many human rights violations to recognize in just one day, Chevron faces ever-growing opposition on the eve of its annual meeting

On any list of worst corporate actors concerning human rights, the environment, accountability, transparency, and governance, Chevron consistently ranks at or near the top.

Solaris Resources Faces Major Setback As Deal With Zijin Mining Falls Through

Project controversies, regulatory delay, and investor skepticism doom CAD$130 million deal over Ecuadorian Amazon project

Canada’s Solaris Resources announced yesterday that a CAD$130 million investment deal with Chinese firm Zijin Mining was dead, abruptly ending a much touted infusion of capital needed to advance its flagship Warintza project.

Wall Street Banks Fund the Destruction of Our Indigenous Land

Newsweek | As representatives of communities who pay the highest costs of this toxic business, Indigenous Peoples demand banks prohibit new financing of Petroperú, and prevent its clients from pursuing new oil expansion.

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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Oil Debt: Financing Amazon Destruction

A new documentary highlights the efforts of the Achuar, Wampís, and Chapra nations from the Peruvian Amazon against state-run oil company Petroperú and its financiers

The 2024 Banking on Climate Chaos report is the most comprehensive analysis of the financial institutions backing the fossil fuel industry and the policies of the world’s 60 largest banks enabling this financing.

Safeguarding the Right to Self-determination at UNPFII

At the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Amazon Watch amplified Indigenous voices of strong female leaders underscoring the urgency of safeguarding the right to self-determination on the path to COP30

Achieving Indigenous autonomies and territorial governance, where self-determination is exercised, requires dismantling the mandates imposed by colonial and extractivist states and transforming them based on indigenous worldviews of harmony and collectivity.

Unmasking the Environmental and Human Rights Threats of Canadian Corporations

Despite its promises, Canada rejects key recommendations on the framework of the Universal Periodic Review and remains a threat to human rights and the environment

Contrary to upholding Indigenous rights, Canada rejected crucial recommendations regarding the regulation of its companies operating in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Ecuadorians Vote to Strengthen Security and Reject Neoliberal Economic Reforms

Ballot measures proposing a return to international arbitration mechanisms and that weaken labor laws lose by wide margin

Ecuadorian voters sent a clear message to President Daniel Noboa on Sunday, in the country’s second referendum vote in under a year: they want security, but they saw through his attempt to sneak through right-wing economic reforms.

Mounting Resistance to the Ferrogrão Railway in the Brazilian Amazon

An unprecedented popular alliance is fighting to prevent the progress of a disastrous Amazonian mega-project

As the world turns its eyes to Brazil for next year’s critical COP30 climate summit, the future of the Amazon and its peoples stand at a dangerous crossroads as Brazilian agribusiness and global commodity traders attempt to drive a mega-railway through it.

Indigenous and Community Coalition Challenges Petroperú’s Financial Backing

Citi and JPMorgan Chase urged to protect Indigenous rights and Amazonian ecosystems

A burgeoning coalition of Peruvian Amazonian Indigenous peoples and fishing organizations are demanding to meet JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup to warn against any new financing for state-operated oil company Petroperú because of its history of oil contamination and flagrant disregard of Indigenous and human rights.

Amazonian Indigenous People Stage Major Mobilization Aimed at Stopping the Ferrogrão Railway

Indigenous-led “People's Tribunal” issues searing verdict on the megaproject and works to influence a key legal ruling that could determine its future

“The Popular Tribunal against Ferrogrão revealed the strength and determination of Indigenous peoples, traditional communities and social movements in defending their rights and the future of the planet.”

Following the Money Behind Amazon Oil Development

Santander and HSBC worked on Petroperú bond issuance despite its record of Amazon oil spills

Financial Times | Local opposition has hampered Petroperú’s plans to start producing crude from two large blocks in the Amazon. For many banks, support for Amazon oil development must look like much more trouble than it is worth.

Over 100 International Organizations Denounce Belo Sun’s Efforts to Criminalize Brazilian Land Defenders

Canadian mining company Belo Sun is attempting to build the largest open-pit gold mine in Brazil, and now it has filed a criminal lawsuit against local community members and activists who are speaking out about the environmental and human rights impacts of the project

“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.”

Chevron’s Environmental Crimes: 13 Years of Evasion and Escalation

On the 13th anniversary of the historic $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron, Ecuador's current government could betray its own people in favor of big oil interests

Thirteen years ago today, Indigenous peoples and other Amazonian inhabitants made climate justice history in Ecuador when, after 18 years of legal battles, they won a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron Corporation.

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.

Despite Victory in a Historic Referendum, Yasuní National Park Is Again at Risk

Ecuador's president announces plans to ignore the popular vote and continue drilling for oil in one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, home to Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation

The government seeks to upend the will of voters and continue drilling in Yasuní under the pretense of funding the country’s escalating conflict with organized crime. 

Unmasking Canada’s Extractive Industry Violations at the UN Human Rights Council

Pressure mounts in Geneva against Canada as civil society demands Indigenous and socio-environmental rights commitments

Civil society organizations also urge Canada to enact regulations ensuring gold's origin traceability, especially when mining occurs in Amazonian countries. They call for a comprehensive energy transition plan that respects human rights and promotes the gradual abandonment of extractive industries that jeopardize the Amazon's ecological balance.