Amazon Watch
    Amazon Watch

    Defend Earth Defenders

    The Amazon and its Indigenous communities face a collective threat of land invasions, extractive industries, and mega infrastructure projects that often translate into death threats and violent attacks against those who resist. In order to protect the rights, territories, and environment of Amazonian Earth Defenders, we must fight for legal recognition and enforcement of ancestral territorial rights, implementation of free, prior, and informed consent for megaprojects imposed on Indigenous lands, addressing illegal economies and corruption, among others.

    When Defending the Land Becomes a Crime

    "At the end of the day resistance is an ethical struggle. It is a struggle we must take up. Resistance is a principle of justice, especially when we see that the people are suffering."

    October 5, 2017
    1,002 views
    8 min read

    Amazon in Focus 2017

    While the threats to the Amazon and indigenous peoples seem daunting at times – with reports of increased deforestation due to industrial activity and lawlessness resulting in attacks against earth defenders – we cannot lose sight of hope and victories on the horizon.

    September 29, 2017
    2,407 views
    2 min read

    Amazon Watch and Empowered By Light Help Indigenous Communities Embrace Clean Energy

    "These communities are true climate leaders" said Leila Salazar-López, Executive Director at Amazon Watch. "Lighting the way for our climate and our forests, these indigenous earth defenders know that the solution to climate change must include stopping the destruction of the Amazon rainforest."

    September 25, 2017
    2,775 views
    2 min read

    Ecuador’s Government Responds to Demands of the Country’s Indigenous Movement

    It has been eight years since Ecuador's indigenous leaders last met with the leader occupying the country's presidential palace. But Ecuador's new president, Lenin Moreno, has taken a different approach, summoning various actors who were considered opponents by the previous government to a "National Dialogue".

    September 20, 2017
    6,521 views
    5 min read

    Amazon Watch is building on more than three decades of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.

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    We Are Made of the Sacred!

    A mobilization of the Munduruku people, which began two months ago by women concerned with defending sacred places and indigenous rights and led to an occupation of the construction site of the São Manoel hydroelectric dam project, ended on Friday. The Munduruku, however, have made it clear that their struggle continues.

    July 26, 2017
    5,955 views
    5 min read

    UN Experts Slam Brazilian Government’s Attacks on Indigenous Rights

    In response to the deepening human rights crisis gripping Brazil, last week a group of experts from the UN and IACHR forcefully denounced President Temer's administration and the agribusiness-affiliated ruralista congressional bloc for leading the assault on the rights of indigenous peoples.

    June 15, 2017
    4,889 views
    3 min read

    Temer Faces Political Test Over Amazon Bill

    President Michel Temer must choose whether or not to sign a bill freeing up a large section of the Amazon to agriculture, as Brazilian activists warn that the country's environmental commitments could be sacrificed to demands fuelled by its political crisis.

    June 14, 2017
    3,924 views
    3 min read

    Resistance and Risk in the Peruvian Amazon

    The expansion of oil palm plantations is an emerging threat to the Amazon in Peru and beyond. The rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia have been devastated by oil palm, a legacy that does not bode well for the Western Hemisphere.

    June 6, 2017
    1,306 views
    5 min read

    The People of the Waterfalls Threatened By Mining

    The Shuar are facing a great threat given the fact that the Ecuadorian government has sold concessions to part of their territory for an open-pit copper mining project run by the company Explocobres, a subsidiary of the Chinese companies CRCC and Tongling.

    May 5, 2017
    4,773 views
    6 min read

    Historic Indigenous Mobilization Confronts Spiraling Threats To Rights and Resources in Brazil

    "We affirm that we will not permit violence, rollbacks, and threats perpetrated by the Brazilian government and economic oligarchies against our lives and our rights. We call on Brazilian society and the international community to unite with the struggle of native peoples in defense of traditional territories, Mother Earth, and the well-being of...

    May 3, 2017
    3,051 views
    3 min read

    Brazil: Hate Speech Threatens the Xingu

    Imperatriz Leopoldinense probably had no idea where it would lead them when they chose to speak out about the Xingu, but they chose the right path. Because today, to defend the Brazilian Indian is to defend the future of our country.

    February 22, 2017
    1,577 views
    4 min read

    NGO Targeted by Ecuadorian Government for Shutdown To Remain Open

    "We believe that justice has been done, and we will continue to work with the same courage and strength to defend the rights of nature and the rights of the people as we have been doing for 30 years," said Alexandra Almeida, the group's president.

    January 13, 2017
    1,416 views
    4 min read

    U.N. Experts Slam Ecuador Over Forced Closure of Land Rights Group

    The United Nations criticized the government of Ecuador on Friday for ordering the closure of a land rights advocacy group that supports an indigenous community protesting mining plans in land they claim as their ancestral home.

    December 31, 2016
    4,040 views
    2 min read

    CONAIE Statement on the Militarization of Shuar Territory and the Detention of Agustín Wachapá

    We are grateful for the solidarity of the Ecuadorian people and indigenous peoples' organizations, human rights throughout Latin America and the world, and call on the international community to be alert and vigilant to what happens in Ecuador, especially with our sisters and brothers of Shuar Nationality whose territory, life, and survival are in...

    December 29, 2016
    5,702 views
    3 min read

    New Witch Hunt in Ecuador Against Indigenous and Environment Defenders

    Ecuador became an even more difficult place to be a defender of indigenous rights and the environment in recent days. You would think a country with constitutionally-enshrined protections for Mother Nature would support and encourage indigenous and environmental rights defenders, but sadly that is not the case, and it has implications for the...

    December 23, 2016
    6,536 views
    5 min read

    Ecuador Moves To Close Leading Environmental Organization as Part of Crackdown on Civil Society

    Ecuador's Environment Ministry announced yesterday its intention to shutter Acción Ecológica, the country's leading grassroots environmental organization. The move is a clear reprisal to the group's efforts to raise awareness about environmental and indigenous rights concerns over a planned mega-copper mine on the lands of the Shuar indigenous...

    December 21, 2016
    2,949 views
    4 min read