There are several reasons to be optimistic about building momentum to further restrict plans to expand oil extraction in its Amazon and keep fossil fuels permanently in the ground, and Ecuador is a great example.
Dirty Energy
Biodiversity Can Only Exist With “Land Back”
"As Indigenous Peoples at CBD COP 15, we demand Indigenous-led solutions to the climate crisis and for our rights to be respected. Our peoples are the keepers of Biodiversity around the world. It is through our solutions that we will see the world through the climate crisis."
A Powerful Beacon of Hope in the Colombian Amazon
The Siona of Buenavista are a beacon of resistance against incursions of oil companies like GeoPark and narco-mafias into their territories. Solidarity from Colombian and international allies can be crucial to their success.
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.
Executives Refuse to Address Vanguard’s Complicity in Amazon Destruction
A Peruvian delegation of Indigenous and fishing community leaders came to the U.S. to share their first-hand account of Petroperú's impacts on their livelihoods
A Peruvian delegation of Indigenous leaders and fishing communities is in the United States right now, confronting investors on their rights to live free from the devastation caused by the oil company the investors are bankrolling, Petroperú.
Amazon Watch is building on more than 25 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.
Vanguard Ignores Request from Indigenous Leaders from Peru to Meet on Investment Risks to Amazon Rainforest and Rights
Indigenous and fishing community leaders traveled to the U.S. to highlight harms caused by oil company Petroperú's operations in the Peruvian Amazon and coast
Vanguard cannot continue doing business as usual! We ask Vanguard to adopt an Indigenous rights and deforestation policy because our lives, water, and rainforest are at stake. Until it takes concrete steps, it remains complicit in the destruction of the Amazon and our livelihoods.
Amazon Watch Response to Energy Transition Accelerator: Proposal Repeats Failures of Previous Carbon Markets
“The LEAF Coalition is already failing forests and Indigenous peoples, and this attempt to export its unaccountable, unjust model to the power sector is yet another iteration of the same old story: climate finance that should be delivered no-strings-attached to Indigenous communities and Global South nations is being made contingent on handing out...
UN Expert Group Affirms: “Net Zero” Is Incompatible with Fossil Fuels and Deforestation
Recommendations released at COP27 highlight greenwashing risks of "net zero," while falling short on carbon offsets and human rights
“Credible net zero plans require drastic emissions reductions, direct support for ecosystem protection, and robust respect for the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities,” said Moira Birss, Climate Finance Director at Amazon Watch.
Latest Draft Shows That the TNFD’s Reputation as “the Next Frontier in Corporate Greenwashing on Nature” Remains Solidly Intact
Almost 18 months after the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) launched, its latest draft gives little reason to believe that the global corporations behind it can be trusted to develop a credible reporting system that would meaningfully shift business behavior on biodiversity.
First-Ever Regional Court Case Involving Rights of Uncontacted Peoples Awaits Verdict
The Inter-American Court of Human rights is evaluating the first-ever case concerning the rights of Indigenous communities in voluntary isolation
Mongabay | In the case Tagaeri & Taromenane Indigenous people vs the Ecuadorian state, lawyers representing the communities in voluntary isolation say the Ecuadorian state has failed to protect these populations and propelled the extractive industry in the area, putting pressure on the rainforest and increasing conflict between local communities.
A People’s Referendum Could Stop Drilling in Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park
Defenders of Yasuní National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon, one of the most biologically diverse places on the planet, have two new reasons to hope that oil drilling in the region could be imminently curtailed.
Peruvian Indigenous Federation Joins Groups Urging CFTC to Rein In Voluntary Carbon Market Derivatives
On Friday, October 7th, a coalition of climate justice, Indigenous, and financial regulation advocacy organizations will demand that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission investigates and regulates carbon offset derivative trading to rein in misleading claims, fraud, and undisclosed risk and prevent the growth of systemic financial risk...
Amazon Watch Rebuts False Claims of Consultation with Indigenous Communities by Vanguard-Financed Peruvian Oil Company
Petroperú fails to allay the risks for investors, communities, and the climate of its planned expansion in the Amazon rainforest; Vanguard fails to respond
Oakland, CA – Today, Amazon Watch released a response to a letter from Petroperú, a state-owned Peruvian oil company, that attempted to contradict a recent blog on Vanguard's financing of the oil company.
Pluspetrol Norte: A History of Unpaid Sanctions and Oil Spills in the Peruvian Amazon
Mongabay | “The situation never improves; all the companies have had spills from OXY, Pluspetrol, and Petroperu. The pipes are decayed; they’ve been installed for years, and for that reason, [the land] is constantly being polluted.”
Ecuador Defends the Rights of Its People and Rejects Another Chevron Scheme!
Several days ago we asked you to take urgent action to tell the government of Ecuador to hold Chevron accountable for its deliberate Amazon pollution, before a legal deadline. Great news: it did!
Amazonian Leaders: Climate Week Sponsors Complicit in Destruction of Amazon Rainforest, Indigenous Land
At press conference in New York City, Indigenous leaders from Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru expose U.S. financial institutions for projects harming Indigenous communities
New York, NY – New York Climate Week sponsors, including BlackRock and Vanguard, were among the American financial institutions exposed for financing the destruction of the Amazon and Indigenous land at a press conference this week held by Indigenous leaders from the Amazon region and environmental and human rights group Amazon Watch.
Climate Week NYC: Peruvian Oil Company Petroperú is Toxic for International Investors
New Amazon Watch report details Petroperú's threats to the climate, Indigenous rights, and its investors' bottom line
New York, NY – Peruvian state-owned oil company Petroperú poses extreme risks for investors, according to a new report by Amazon Watch released during New York Climate Week.
The Risks of Investing in Petroperú
This risk assessment describes the political, social, financial, environmental, and legal risks associated with investing in Petroperú. It also compiles the perspective of some communities that could be affected by the threat of oil operations by Petroperú, in particular, the Achuar People of the Pastaza River and the Autonomous Territorial...
Amazonian Leaders Expose U.S. Financiers Behind Amazon Destruction at NYC Climate Week
Indigenous Amazonian delegates from across the Amazon to speak out
Indigenous leaders from the Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon invite you to a press conference during Climate Week NYC 2022. In the context of Climate Week’s theme, Getting It Done, the delegates will discuss ways they are "getting done" protection of the Amazon rainforest.
Ecuador Declares Temporary Moratorium on New Oil and Mining Concessions
Ecuador’s Indigenous movement and the government of Guillermo Lasso have agreed to a temporary moratorium on all new oil and mining concessions. This major development puts the country’s plans to double oil production and significantly boost mining investment in question.
Vanguard Funds Indigenous Rights Violations in Peru’s Amazon
Asset manager Vanguard must stop investing in Indigenous rights violations and environmental destruction
The Achuar and Wampis have good reason to oppose further oil extraction: The Northern Peruvian Oil Pipeline, which runs through their territories, has repeatedly ruptured, causing countless spills and constant threats to the environment and safety of their communities.
The Voices of Amazonian Peoples Led This Year’s Pan-Amazon Social Forum
The forum strongly condemned the so-called development paradigm, in which governments and large corporations are complicit in destruction with projects that privatize profits and socialize losses over Amazonian peoples and territories.
Sarayaku’s Kawsak Sacha Is What the World Needs Now!
The Kawsak Sacha proposal aims to sustainably preserve and conserve territorial spaces, the material and spiritual relationship established there by native peoples with the living forest and the beings that inhabit it.
Oil in the Peruvian Amazon: Obscene Profits Through Immoral Strategies
Legal attacks against the protections for isolated Indigenous peoples and Peru’s FPIC law are examples of how the oil lobby keeps the current legal framework – the product of years of struggle by Indigenous movements and civil society – under constant siege.
UN-backed TNFD Proposal Risks Opening a New Frontier for Corporate Greenwashing
“Under TNFD’s proposed framework businesses are fully entitled to continue to back the destruction and degradation of nature and human rights – so long as it doesn’t affect their profits."
From Local to Global: Peruvian Earth Defenders Confront Deutsche Bank in Germany
Delegation of Indigenous leaders from the Amazon built networks of support and solidarity in the movement against oil expansion in the Amazon
The Wampis and Achuar nations will not permit oil production on Block 64, and they have launched an international campaign to make it clear to anyone who still thinks it might be a good investment to attempt to extract oil from their territories.
Is Vanguard Sinking the Climate Ship?
Asset manager Vanguard is a major investor in some of the mining and oil companies that are causing irreparable harm to the Amazon rainforest and to Indigenous peoples. Vanguard is not only financing destruction and rights violations in the Amazon, but it is financing climate catastrophe throughout the world.
Ecuadorian Indigenous Movement Secures Victories, Ending National Strike
Indigenous leaders and the Ecuadorian government reached an agreement including a repeal of Executive Decree 95 on oil and gas and reform of decree 151 affecting the mining sector, among other demands. Both decrees had authorized the government to expand the extractive frontier into Indigenous territories and important conservation and forest...
Citi: Still Financing Indigenous Rights Violations and Biodiversity Loss in the Amazon
Citi’s financial support to the Ecuadorian government is directly linked to oil drilling on and near Indigenous territories in the Amazon, where community leaders have repeatedly voiced opposition to such projects.
