Amazon Watch
    Amazon Watch

    End Amazon Crude

    The Amazon is a no-go zone for oil drilling

    The western Amazon is one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth. This vital rainforest is under threat from previous and ongoing oil extraction – which pollutes rivers, harms wildlife and human health, and opens the forest to roads, deforestation, and further exploitation.

    Amazon Watch works in close partnership with Indigenous peoples to stop oil extraction at the source and reduce global demand for Amazon oil. Together, we are building pressure on governments, corporations, and consumers to phase out Amazon crude and protect the rainforest – before it’s too late.

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    The Amazon Rainforest-Sized Loophole in Net Zero

    How net zero pledges can lead to false solutions for Amazon rainforest and climate protection

    Trading forest protection for continued greenhouse gas emissions presents a false and dangerous "solution" to the climate crisis. Instead, emissions must be drastically reduced, forests must be protected for their own sake, Indigenous forest stewardship must be recognized and respected, and the root causes of deforestation – namely commodity...

    July 2021
    2,037 views
    2 min read

    Banking on Amazon Destruction

    How European and U.S. banks fund the oil and gas industry despite environmental and social risks driving the Amazon over the brink

    In Amazon Watch and Stand.earth’s latest report, Banking on Amazon Destruction, researchers compare the Environmental and Social Risk (ESR) policies of target banks to their actions. Together, we are calling on banks to exclude all types of finance (including investment) for any company engaging in the oil industry in the Amazon, setting markers...

    July 2021
    6,408 views
    1 min read

    Investing in Amazon Crude II

    How the Big Three Asset Managers Actively Fund the Amazon Oil Industry

    Three of the world's largest asset managers – BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street – with trillions of dollars under their control, invest in oil companies with horrific environmental and human rights records across the Amazon Basin. Right now, these asset managers hold a large amount of risk by actively contributing to Indigenous and human...

    June 2021
    3,837 views
    2 min read

    BlackRock Must Commit to Indigenous Rights – Not Just Climate Change

    Mongabay | "In Brazil the operations of corporations like the ones we mention above, into which BlackRock directs substantial investments on behalf of clients, have profound negative impacts on our communities, our forests, and the climate," APIB wrote. "You therefore have a responsibility for our future. And if the Amazon is destroyed, the future of the...

    March 19, 2021
    5,203 views
    5 min read

    BlackRock to Press Companies on Human Rights and Nature

    Bloomberg | Environmental group Amazon Watch welcomed BlackRock's moves but said they didn't go far enough. BlackRock failed to identify transparent expectations, time lines and consequences for company inaction on these issues, according to Moira Birss, Amazon Watch's Climate and Finance Director. "BlackRock should adopt a definitive no-deforestation and...

    March 17, 2021
    2,076 views
    3 min read

    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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    What Do You Get When You Beat Chevron in Court? 500 Days of Home Detention

    "As my physical world has shrunk, the online world has expanded by multiples of thousands. And once I get through this, I have no doubt that Chevron will be paying this judgment such that thousands of Indigenous people and rural communities will have a clean environment and thousands of lives will be saved. That's what this is ultimately about."

    December 22, 2020
    3,136 views
    4 min read

    Manufacturing Consent: Ecuador to Draft New Bill on the Consultation of Indigenous Peoples, Without Consulting Them

    "We demand that an FPIC law be put forth in harmony with and respect for our peoples and nations and our ways and time frames for discussion, analysis, and decision-making. We are not going to acquiesce to an illegitimate law written from their desks in Quito," said a CONFENIAE statement. "Since this will be a law regarding the collective rights...

    November 18, 2020
    1,107 views
    4 min read

    Climate Activists Ramp Up Pressure on BlackRock During Fires Week of Action

    Despite positioning itself earlier this year as a financial firm that leads on climate, BlackRock continues to be a major financial investor in the deforestation commodity companies currently fueling the fires in the Amazon. BlackRock is a top investor in deforestation-risk commodities around the world, and despite vague commitments to prioritize...

    September 4, 2020
    1,381 views
    4 min read

    Climate Activists Stage Direct Action Against BlackRock’s Continued Financing of Amazon Fires

    Activists post decals of Amazon fire destruction on BlackRock's San Francisco and New York headquarters calling out financier for climate commitments that fail to address deforestation and Indigenous rights violations

    "According to MAAP, as of August 30th of this year, over 1.1 million acres (453,000 hectares) of recently deforested areas have burned in the Brazilian Amazon. Given the urgency of what's happening in the Amazon today, it's encouraging to see that activists are turning out from coast to coast to hold BlackRock accountable for its contributions to...

    September 3, 2020
    5,197 views
    2 min read

    European Banks Urged to Stop Funding Oil Trade in Amazon

    Indigenous people in headwaters region say financing harms communities and ecosystems

    The Guardian | Marlon Vargas, the president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon, said: "I wonder if the executives of banks in Europe know the real cost of their financing. How can they possibly sleep peacefully knowing their money leaves thousands of indigenous peoples and communities without water, without food and in...

    August 12, 2020
    867 views
    4 min read

    European Banks Face Indigenous Calls to End Amazon Oil Trade

    Reuters | European banks committed to backing action on climate change face allegations of double standards from indigenous groups in Ecuador after a report named them as major players in the trade in oil from the Amazon rainforest.

    August 12, 2020
    4,546 views
    5 min read

    New Report Reveals European Banks Financing Trade of Controversial Amazon Oil to U.S.

    Banks in Switzerland, France, Netherlands facilitate trade from Amazon Sacred Headwaters region in Ecuador, where oil extraction contributes to spills, human rights abuses, and climate destruction

    "The oil industry has a toxic legacy in the Amazon, further exacerbated by recent spills that have contaminated rivers and disrupted the health and food security of Indigenous communities. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, oil companies continue to pursue expansion, putting Indigenous peoples at even greater risk. These banks cannot claim to...

    August 12, 2020
    3,231 views
    7 min read

    Indigenous Resistance Expels Oil Company GeoPark from Peruvian Amazon

    The Chile-based oil company's announcement follows years of protests, lawsuits, outreach to major shareholders, and direct advocacy with the CEO

    "GeoPark's departure from Block 64 is a testament to the vision and persistence of the Achuar people and Wampis Nation. Let this be the final nail in Block 64's coffin," said Andrew Miller, Advocacy Director at Amazon Watch.

    July 17, 2020
    2,482 views
    3 min read

    Is BlackRock the New Vampire Squid?

    The investment giant casts itself as socially responsible while contributing to the climate catastrophe, evading regulatory scrutiny, and angling to influence a Biden administration

    The New Republic | Luiz Eloy, a member of the Terena people and a lawyer with the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, said in an email that BlackRock has "changed absolutely nothing to alter its investment strategy, which pours money into the very companies that brutalize us and take down forests on an industrial scale. Talk means nothing to us, not after...

    June 26, 2020
    3,735 views
    9 min read

    Report Names the Banks Financing Destructive Oil Projects in the Amazon

    Funding these projects runs counter to these companies' own statements of support for climate actions, including the Paris climate agreement, activists say

    Mongabay | Five of the biggest financial institutions in the world invested a combined $6 billion in oil extraction projects in the western Amazon between 2017 and 2019. According to Moira Birss of Amazon Watch, only pressure from civil society can stop the extraction of these natural resources without guaranteeing the conservation of the environment and the...

    June 9, 2020
    3,636 views
    5 min read

    JPMorgan Chase Climate Action Is Vastly Insufficient

    JPMorgan Chase's February announcement of new, limited restrictions on its financing of certain kinds of fossil fuels in certain highly controversial extraction sites was a step in the right direction, but like many other financial institutions' commitments, it falls short. Notably, the bank's climate policy fails to outline measurable commitments...

    May 18, 2020
    2,296 views
    3 min read

    Investor Eye on the Amazon

    A primer for shareholders concerned about rainforest protection and human rights

    The Investor Eye on the Amazon newsletter serves as a resource for socially-responsible investors, industry analysts, and researchers looking to better understand the risks associated with financing climate-damaging industries in the Amazon, and what they can do to protect the region.

    Spring 2020
    3,946 views
    1 min read

    COVID-19: Is GeoPark Contaminating Amazon Communities?

    The Wampis Nation, one of the most organized Indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon, is calling out Chile-based oil company GeoPark for putting their communities at risk of the COVID-19 contagion. Leaders of the Wampis Nation have received information that GeoPark community-relations workers are violating Peru's national quarantine by...

    May 12, 2020
    6,450 views
    8 min read

    COVID, Crude, and Climate: Crisis and Opportunity in the Ecuadorian Amazon

    "In this time of multiple crises, we are invisible, yet again. But they're planning to open up our territories the second this is over. And we won't let that happen."

    Ecuador is grappling with a trifecta of tragedy never before seen despite its tumultuous history. The country not only has one of the highest numbers of COVID-19 cases in the world, but it is also facing a pipeline rupture that has contaminated Amazon rivers and historic flooding that has devastated local communities and left hundreds of families...

    April 30, 2020
    4,329 views
    7 min read

    Indigenous Peoples Sue the Ecuadorian Government and Oil Companies Over Spill

    Indigenous communities that rely on the river for fresh water and food now face an additional crisis during COVID-19

    "We are already suffering from various illnesses caused by oil contamination, and now we are also facing this pandemic. We face discrimination as the government has failed to include us in its emergency plans yet again. This is why the families, represented by FCUNAE, decided to join this lawsuit: we don't want this to happen ever again."

    April 29, 2020
    6,635 views
    5 min read

    Goldman Sachs' Climate Action Is Not Enough

    "If Goldman truly wants to be a 'sustainability' leader, it must end corporate financing for fossil fuel expansion in the Amazon and around the world – particularly when that expansion happens on Indigenous territories."

    April 29, 2020
    5,462 views
    2 min read

    HSBC Must Step Up Its Climate Action and Stakeholder Participation

    "If HSBC truly wants to live up to its responsibility to communities and its pledge to a low-carbon economy, it must end corporate financing for fossil fuel expansion in the Amazon and around the world – particularly when that expansion happens on Indigenous territories."

    April 23, 2020
    5,456 views
    3 min read

    Citi's New Environmental and Social Policy Falls Short

    Citigroup's unambitious new policy, released just before its annual general meeting of shareholders, ignores the climate and Indigenous rights risks of oil drilling in the Amazon

    "If Citi truly cares about being a leader on climate and Indigenous rights, it must end corporate financing for fossil fuel expansion in the Amazon and around the world – particularly when that expansion is planned for the territories of Indigenous peoples."

    April 21, 2020
    6,076 views
    3 min read

    Oil Spill Along the Coca and Napo Rivers Affects Ecuadorian Indigenous Communities

    Indigenous communities facing fresh water and food shortages as oil spill pollutes local river

    This spill could not have come at a worse time for Indigenous peoples and communities near the river, as they are working to protect themselves from the spread of COVID, and securing access to basic food, sanitary supplies, and potable water.

    April 9, 2020
    4,935 views
    2 min read

    Statement in Solidarity With Amazonian Indigenous Peoples Facing the Novel Coronavirus

    In solidarity with Indigenous organizations, federations and nationalities of the Amazon who have expressed deep concern about the impending threat of COVID-19 in their ancestral territories and communities, we demand integrated, effective, and culturally adequate state responses to this crisis. This begins with an immediate moratorium on any...

    April 2020
    1,540 views
    9 min read

    Urgent Action Needed to Protect Indigenous Peoples from COVID-19 in Ecuador

    Quito, Ecuador – In response to the global health crisis related to the coronavirus pandemic, yesterday Indigenous and human rights organizations in Ecuador sent a letter of concern urging the government to implement concrete, culturally-adequate, and effective protection measures in order to guarantee the fulfillment of Indigenous peoples' rights...

    March 27, 2020
    2,875 views
    10 min read

    Drilling in the Amazon? Global Financiers Say Yes

    TriplePundit | "The Amazon rainforest is crucial to climate stability, and oil drilling expansion is one of the greatest threats to it," said Moira Birss, campaign director of the finance program at Amazon Watch.

    March 23, 2020
    5,381 views
    3 min read

    New Report Highlights Links Between Big Finance and Amazon Crude

    Activists urged to Join the #StopTheMoneyPipeline to take on Wall Street!

    In our newest report, Investing in Amazon Crude, and activist guide, Building People Power to End Investment in Amazon Crude, Amazon Watch details the ways that five of the world's most powerful financial institutions – Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and BlackRock – actively contribute to climate change by providing debt and...

    March 12, 2020
    2,171 views
    3 min read

    U.S. Firms Bankroll Oil Extraction in the Amazon – Report

    E&E News | Major U.S. financial institutions are funneling billions of dollars into crude oil expansion in the western Amazon rainforest, according to a report released today that underscored Indigenous peoples' long-standing opposition to fossil fuel extraction on ancestral lands.

    March 12, 2020
    3,728 views
    4 min read