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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    Depths of Fossil Fuel Industry's Power Over U.S. Government Exposed in Chevron/Donziger Case

    Despite demands for his freedom and calls for investigations from the UN, Congress, and the International Community, Steven Donziger to be Sentenced for Criminal Contempt of Court

    "We are alarmed by human rights lawyer Steve Donziger's sentencing today. While the severity of Donziger's fate may seem unprecedented, it is emblematic of the larger trend of silencing activists, many of whom are fighting for the solutions desperately needed to combat the global climate crisis exacerbated by multinational fossil fuel companies,"...

    October 1, 2021
    5,919 views
    7 min read

    Ecuador Wages Legal Attack on Indigenous Plaintiffs Who Won $9.5 Billion-Dollar Legal Victory Against Chevron 

    Despite facing five decades of some of the world's worst oil-related contamination at the hands of Chevron and winning a historic 28-year legal battle that has yet to result in a clean up of its toxic legacy, Indigenous plaintiffs in the case are now under legal attack from its own government. In an effort to appease Chevron and court investors...

    September 24, 2021
    5,498 views
    8 min read

    Flyovers Confirm Southern Amazonas Is New Deforestation Frontier in Brazilian Amazon

    Images taken last week between Porto Velho, Rondônia and Lábrea, Amazonas show widespread devastation in one of the most conserved areas of the Amazon rainforest

    "We saw all the stages of the deforestation process one after the other: The extraction of high-value timber, the burning of vegetation to grow pasture, and cattle herds occupying areas that until recently were covered by forest," says Rômulo Batista, spokesperson for the Greenpeace Brazil Amazon campaign.

    September 23, 2021
    1,343 views
    4 min read

    Banks Called to Exit Amazon Oil and Gas by Indigenous and Environmental Organizations

    U.S., European banks could play critical role in ending Amazon destruction and rights violations by ending oil, gas financing in rainforest vital for global climate

    New York, NY – A virtual Climate Week event held today highlighted the critical role U.S. and European banks must play in ending oil and gas financing in the Amazon rainforest. The event, led by international environmental advocacy groups and Amazon Indigenous leaders, revealed a new "Exit Amazon Oil and Gas" campaign and exclusion policy that...

    September 21, 2021
    4,679 views
    4 min read

    Flyovers Document Destruction of Brazilian Amazon by Deforestation and Fires, Contrary to Bolsonaro's Speech at the UN

    São Paulo, Brazil – Today, the Amazon in Flames Alliance, led by environmental organizations Amazon Watch, Greenpeace Brazil, and the Brazilian Climate Observatory launched images of a flyover showing the extent of deforestation and fires destruction in the Amazon. The images were released as President Bolsonaro presented a speech at the 76th UN...

    September 21, 2021
    6,777 views
    4 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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    Ecuador's New Presidential Administration Opens Doors to Expand Extraction

    During his first 100 days in office, Ecuador’s new president, Guillermo Lasso, made it clear that his government’s economic policy will be based on extractivism. According to the new administration, natural resources, such as oil, gas, and minerals, found in Ecuadorian subsoil are "essential," given the economic situation he inherited due to poor...

    September 16, 2021
    4,419 views
    6 min read

    Indigenous Warrior Women Take Fight to Save Ancestral Lands to Brazilian Capital

    Jair Bolsonaro is backing a legal move to open up large tracts of indigenous territory to commercial exploitation that tribal members call an "extermination effort"

    The Guardian | Sônia Guajajara, a prominent indigenous leader, said: "These are all highly orchestrated measures which are designed to take away the land rights of indigenous people and open these lands up for exploitation … It's all about profit and money. We champion biodiversity, keeping the forest standing, which is precisely what ensures us life. All they...

    September 10, 2021
    4,008 views
    4 min read

    Indigenous Leaders Push New Target to Protect Amazon from Deforestation

    Reuters | "We invite the global community to join us to reverse the destruction of our home and by doing so safeguard the future of the planet," said José Gregorio Diaz Mirabal, lead coordinator for COICA, which represents Indigenous groups in nine Amazon-basin nations.

    September 5, 2021
    5,521 views
    2 min read

    European Bank Intesa Commits to Exclude Amazon Oil from Headwaters Region of Ecuador, Peru

    Stand.earth, Amazon Watch call on other banks to follow suit

    "Intesa's new commitment to exclude oil from the Amazon Headwaters region shows how banks can expand Amazon-specific exclusion policies beyond just trade financing. While the policy falls short of the call for banks to extend Amazon oil exclusions to the entire Amazon Biome, it illustrates how geographic exclusions are a necessary part of banks'...

    August 2, 2021
    4,749 views
    4 min read

    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
    2,358 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
    6,647 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
    4,003 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
    5,354 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
    2,237 views
    3 min read

    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
    3,254 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
    1,317 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
    1,565 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
    5,295 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
    1,008 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
    4,665 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
    3,397 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
    2,779 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
    4,021 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
    3,834 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
    2,441 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
    4,172 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
    7,156 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
    4,534 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
    6,877 views
    5 min read