“BNP Paribas’ decision to stop financing new oil production in the Amazon is the first of its kind and a major milestone for us as Indigenous peoples. This decision affirms what we have been calling for – that financing oil extraction in the Amazon is putting our lives, lands, and cultures at risk, and the health of our entire planet, and must...
Ecuador
Frontline Leaders Call on BlackRock and Vanguard to Adopt Indigenous Rights and Deforestation Policy
BlackRock and Vanguard have opportunity to implement concrete climate policy addressing land rights, deforestation, and human rights abuses in portfolios
“The destruction of the Amazon rainforest is a threat to humanity and to the natural systems on which it depends. Indigenous Peoples are the best protectors of the Amazon, and we will continue to defend our rights and our territories from the extractive industries and threaten Indigenous Peoples and the rainforest.”
Citigroup AGM: Bank Called Out for Amazon Oil Financing
Report shows bank’s role in funding oil companies with ties to corruption, rights violations, pollution, and deforestation in the Amazon. Indigenous leaders, alongside human rights and environmental campaigners, calling for Citigroup to exit Amazon oil and gas.
“Oil drilling in our Amazon has brought contamination, disease, deforestation, destruction of our cultures, and the colonization of our territories. It is an existential threat for us and violates our fundamental rights as Indigenous peoples. We are calling for an end to all new extraction on our lands, and as our ancestors and science now affirm...
Steven Donziger Is Finally Free. Onward Toward Justice for the People of Ecuador!
Today, human rights lawyer Steven Donziger woke up free, marking the closure of the latest chapter in Chevron’s scheme to evade justice for its toxic dumping in Ecuador. Now all eyes turn back to the true crime – Chevron’s contamination from 1964-1992 in Ecuador and the company’s efforts to escape accountability.
Environmental Lawyer Targeted by Chevron Freed After More Than Two Years Under House Arrest
Steven Donziger represented Ecuadorians in a pollution lawsuit against Chevron. Then he ended up in the oil giant's crosshairs.
Gizmodo | After 993 days, Steven Donziger is finally free. On Monday, the embattled lawyer, who has been targeted by Chevron for years in a Kafka-esque court struggle, finished a six-month sentence, which came on the heels of more than two years under house arrest.
Amazon Watch is building on more than 25 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.
2020-2021 Annual Report
It has been a groundbreaking and historic year in our work to protect and defend the Amazon. 2019 saw the devastation of the deforestation fires, which in turn brought a groundswell of support in defense of the Amazon. On the heels of this historic tragedy, and overwhelming support, we increased capacity and responded with renewed vigor in the...
Climate Finance Groups Call on Financial Institutions to Heed IPCC Report Urging World to Stop Using Fossil Fuels
Report comes ahead of shareholder votes on fossil fuel expansion at six largest U.S. banks and major insurance companies
“The latest IPCC report affirms what Indigenous peoples in the Amazon and across the world have been saying for decades: colonialism caused the climate crisis, and colonialism continues to worsen it today."
Inspiration, Healing, and Resistance from Amazonian Women Defenders!
Executive Director Leila Salazar-López traveled to the Ecuadorian Amazon to show solidarity and amplify Indigenous women’s work against Amazon destruction
On March 6, Indigenous women from across the Ecuadorian Amazon traveled to Puyo for the inauguration event of the Casa de Mujeres Amazónicas, a gathering and healing space for Indigenous women defenders of the Amazon. It is a safe space where women can strategize, create, share, and heal together, including work on programming to support women’s...
Human Rights and Chinese Business Activities in Latin America
New report by the Collective on Chinese Financing and Investments, Human Rights and the Environment examines 26 cases of rights violations perpetrated by Chinese companies and financiers across Latin America, over half of which are in the Amazon
As part of the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council, more than 60 civil society organizations released a new report that evaluates 26 projects backed by Chinese companies and capital across nine Latin American countries. The investigation found a pattern of failure to comply with international standards on human rights and the environment...
Over 100 Environmental and Human Rights Organizations Join Amnesty International’s Call for Biden to Pardon Steven Donziger
Global human rights community calls for freedom for human rights lawyer Steven Donziger – unjustly detained for over two years according to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
“More than four months since a discerning opinion by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that found Steven Donziger’s detention to be arbitrary, U.S. judicial authorities have thus far failed to take any action to remedy the situation and implement the Working Group’s call to ensure Mr. Donziger’s immediate release.”
Letter Calling on President Biden to Immediately Pardon Human Rights Lawyer Steven Donziger
Steven Donziger’s prosecution is one more example of how far powerful interests are willing to go in their quest to silence those standing up for justice. They are trying to send a chilling message to environmental activists around the world that fighting against corporate interests can cost them their liberty and more.
Justice Served in Ecuador!
Earth defenders win amnesty from unfair charges
“We have not committed any crime, we are defending our territory, the natural resources of all Ecuadorians. We guarantee food sovereignty, the protection of land and water”
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher Exposed in New Report: How a Notorious Law Firm Enables Corporate Exploitation
A new report, "Unacceptable Shenanigans" - How Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher Enables Corporate Exploitation, endorsed by ten national and international organizations, exposes how the notorious Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher law firm abets human rights violations by multinational corporations the world over.
Portraits of Women Defenders Uniting Across the Amazon
Indigenous women across the Amazon are coming together like never before to protect and defend our lives, rights, bodies, and territories in the face of ever-increasing threats.
Citigroup “Climate Forward” Reputation Remains Tainted with Impacts of Fossil Fuel Financing in Amazon Rainforest
Report shows bank’s role in funding state-run oil companies with ties to corruption, rights violations, pollution, and deforestation in the Amazon. Indigenous leaders, human rights and environmental campaigners calling for Citi to exit Amazon oil and gas
Ahead of Citigroup Investor Day, environmental campaigners at Amazon Watch and Stand.earth are releasing a report spotlighting the bank’s exposure and central role in providing financing and investments of tens of billions to oil and gas companies in the Amazon.
From Wall Street to the Amazon: Big Capital Funds Mining-driven Deforestation
Mongabay | Major investment managers including BlackRock and Capital Group are among more than a dozen U.S. and Brazilian institutions heavily financing mining companies that are destroying Indigenous reserves and their inhabitants’ way of life in the Amazon.
U.S. Financial Institutions Are Complicit in the Destruction of the Amazon
New report exposes how mining companies and international investors drive Indigenous rights violations and threaten the future of the Amazon rainforest
“There must be a general understanding that Indigenous lands, traditional territories, and protected areas in the Amazon are not available for mineral exploration, nor should they be, both because there must be respect for our constitutional right to self-determination as Indigenous peoples over our territories, and because of our lands’...
BlackRock, Vanguard Among Financiers That Poured Billions into Companies Mining in Amazonian Indigenous Territories
New report by the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) and Amazon Watch reveals main investors of eight large mining companies notorious for human rights violations and environmental pollution, including Vale, Anglo American, and Belo Sun, wish to explore Indigenous territories in Brazil.
Brasília, Brazil – Today the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), alongside environmental and human rights organization Amazon Watch, launched Complicity in Destruction IV: How mining companies and international investors drive Indigenous rights violations and threaten the future of the Amazon.
Complicity in Destruction IV
How Mining Companies and International Investors Drive Indigenous Rights Violations and Threaten the Future of the Amazon
In the latest edition of the Complicity in Destruction series, research by APIB and Amazon Watch found that international financiers, including BlackRock, Vanguard and Capital Group, poured USD $54.1 billion into eight large mining companies, including Vale, Anglo American, and Belo Sun.
Indigenous Rights Victories Deal a Major Blow to Oil and Mining Expansion
Ecuador’s plans to greatly expand oil and mining extraction in the Amazon hit a major snag last week as the nation’s Constitutional Court handed down multiple decisions that affirm Indigenous rights and limit extraction.
This Lawyer Should Be World-famous for His Battle With Chevron – But He’s in Jail
Chevron is accused of polluting the Amazon for 26 years. The only people who’ve paid the price are a human rights lawyer and those whose land was poisoned.
The Guardian | Most people have probably heard of Chernobyl, or the BP oil spill. You may also know about my legal battle over contaminated water in California, dramatized in the movie Erin Brockovich. Yet far fewer people have heard about what transpired in the Ecuadorian Amazon – though it’s considered by some activists, journalists, and members of US...
Amazon Watch Statement: Highest Ecuadorian Court Finds Decree 751 Unconstitutional, Would Have Allowed Oil Drilling in Area Protected for Isolated Peoples
Quito, Ecuador – In a reprieve for Indigenous peoples living in isolation inside of Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park, the country’s top court declared Decree 751 unconstitutional, permanently prohibiting drilling in the buffer zone.
Indigenous Communities Confront Ecuadorian Government and International Financiers at Oil and Energy Conference
Promises of environmental responsibility ring hollow as recent major spill turns rainforest and rivers black with crude
Quito, Ecuador – Today the leaders of Ecuador’s Indigenous movement and the regional pan-Amazon Indigenous organization mobilized outside Ecuador’s Annual Conference for Oil and Energy to demand justice for communities affected by the recent disastrous Amazon oil spill and to denounce plans for new drilling.
2021 Was a Year to Reflect, Reclaim, and Reconnect
2021 was full of highs and lows as we entered our second year in physical isolation from one another. We celebrated 25 years as an organization with our community, in deep solidarity with Indigenous peoples. We reflected on all that we have accomplished together and what challenges remain ahead.
Women Wisdom Keepers and Healers: Ancestral Authorities of Life
Our Amazon Defenders Fund will continue mobilizing direct solidarity funds into the hands of Amazonian women wisdom keepers, healers, and ancestral authorities, who are resisting by practicing reciprocal and holistic interactions with the forest and Earth.
All the Ways You Can Support Amazon Watch
When you make a tax-deductible donation to Amazon Watch, you can count on your contribution being put to work effectively and immediately. As we work to achieve climate justice and a just transition for all, we always center Indigenous voices in the movement.
New Investigation Reveals California Fueling Amazon Rainforest Oil Drilling and Destruction
COSTCO, American Airlines, Amazon.com, FedEx, and other major corporations revealed in chain of custody research
“Oil extraction in our Ecuadorian Amazon has brought pollution, diseases, deforestation, destruction of our cultures, and the colonization of our territories. It is an existential threat to us, and it violates our fundamental rights as Indigenous peoples."
Crude Reality: One U.S. State Consumes Half the Oil from the Amazon Rainforest
As oil companies carve up more of the rainforest, a new study says no place in the world uses more oil from beneath the Amazon than California
NBC News | Waorani leader Nemo Guiquita has been fighting the expansion of oil drilling in her tribe’s ancestral homeland for years. She said her grandmother, Nayuma, was the first Waorani to make contact with the outside world 60 years ago. “The rainforest for us is home,” Guiquita said. “It’s our life, our pharmacy, our everything.”
Linked Fates
How California's oil imports affect the future of the Amazon rainforest
“Oil drilling in our Amazon has brought contamination, disease, deforestation, destruction of our cultures, and the colonization of our territories. It is an existential threat for us and violates our fundamental rights as Indigenous peoples.”
