Associated Press | “The Amazon is not for sale. We will defend our territories because we have not been consulted – this is our home."
Kichwa
California Lawmakers Seek to Curb Oil Imports from Amazon
Associated Press | “Consuming oil from the Amazon is incompatible with climate leadership. As the world’s fourth-largest economy, California is sending a powerful market signal by examining its crude footprint and role in Amazon destruction.”
In Ecuador, Environmentalists Worry Noboa Is Unwinding Nation’s Green Reputation
Associated Press | “We are seeing a sweeping package of regressive reforms that are rolling back environmental protections, Indigenous rights guarantees, and threatening basic civil liberties like the freedom of speech and assembly,"
Connecting Frontline Struggles and Fenceline Communities of California’s Oil Addiction
Delegation of Amazonian Indigenous leaders to California builds solidarity and accountability over the state's consumption of Amazon crude
“California is complicit in violating our rights by continuing to consume crude that our courts and voters have said must stay in the ground."
California Is to Examine Its Amazon Oil Ties Following Pleas from Indigenous Leaders from Ecuador
Associated Press | “Being here with our brothers and sisters, with the local communities also fighting – in the end, we feel that the struggle is the same.”
Amazon Watch is building on more than 28 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.
Indigenous Amazonian Delegation Receives Honors in California Senate
“California is complicit in violating our rights by continuing to consume crude that our courts and voters have said must stay in the ground. We are calling on California to take action to phase out its imports of oil that has come at a high price for our forests, our peoples, and our climate.”
Amazonian Indigenous Delegation to Visit Sacramento and Bay Area to Expose New Oil Threat and Call for California Action
A delegation of Indigenous leaders from Ecuador’s Amazon will visit Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area the week of June 16, 2025, to raise alarm over a looming oil expansion threat and deepen ties with California frontline and policy communities.
Indigenous Peoples Denounce Criminal Expansion in the Amazon at the U.N.
“The Permanent Forum must formally recognize that organized crime and illegal economies such as drug trafficking and illegal mining are an existential threat to our peoples."
Historic Legal Victory Achieved by the Kichwa Indigenous People of Sarayaku
The Kichwa People of Sarayaku celebrate this recent triumph in support of their Kawsak Sacha (living and conscious being) territory, which has been marred by oil activities and requires restoration.
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.
Ecuador’s Consultation Process for Indigenous Lands Comes Under the Microscope
Ecuador’s Constitutional Court has selected two legal cases, involving the Cofán and Waorani Indigenous peoples, as a basis to analyze the country’s process of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)
Mongabay | Conflicts with mining companies have become even more serious, says Carlos Mazabanda, Ecuador field coordinator for Amazon Watch, as the state looks to expand its mining sector and relieve some of its dependence on oil. Many communities have been divided by mining companies, while conflicts in the southern province of Morona Santiago have resulted...
Isolated Indigenous Peoples Under Threat of Oil Expansion
New access road under construction intends to go deep into Yasuní National Park's "No Go" Zone
In late October, Ecuador’s right-wing president Guillermo Lasso declared a state of emergency, citing rising violent crime. But the surprise move also conveniently suspended civil liberties just as civil society was gearing up to protest his economic and policy proposals seeking to implement neoliberal reforms and a business-friendly environment...
Indigenous Peoples Fight for Justice a Year After Devastating Oil Spill
Hundreds of Ecuadorian Indigenous people took to the streets of the Amazonian town of Coca yesterday to demand justice for the ongoing impacts of the country's largest oil spill in recent history. Amazon Watch’s team in Ecuador, alongside coalition partners, has been leading advocacy campaigns and maintaining pressure on the government and big...
Amazonian Indigenous Peoples Demand Justice One Year After Ecuador Oil Spill
Representatives of 109 Indigenous communities marched to the prosecutor's office in the Amazonian province of Orellana
Coca, Ecuador – This morning, hundreds of Indigenous Kichwa people from the Ecuadorian Amazon marched through the city of Coca to mark one year since the country’s largest oil spill in recent history. On April 7, 2020, 672,000 gallons of crude oil and fuel spilled from the country’s two major pipelines, the OCP and SOTE operated by the OCP...
Women Defenders Unite to Protect the Amazon
Across the Amazon Basin, Indigenous women are uniting and organizing in defense of life, rights, and territories while confronting increasing threats. Amazonian women defenders are on the front lines of defense and response to both the climate and COVID-19 emergencies. This is in addition to leading resistance against extractive industries...
Our Voice Is Our Power
Indigenous women in the Amazon have been at the forefront of the fight against climate change and the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, and today we are stepping up into new leadership roles, successfully forcing out extractive industries and companies from our sacred territories.
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...
Statement on Violence and Deprivation of Freedom Against Forest Defender Salomé Aranda
As the network of Amazonian Women, we express our total rejection of violence and deprivation of liberty that Salomé Aranda – our sister, leader, and defender of the Amazon rainforest – is suffering. We demand her immediate release and that a transparent investigation be carried out on the situation of systematic violence that our sister has...
APIB Denounces Bolsonaro's Attacks and Misinformation
The Brazilian president delivered a series lies and denials about the state of the Amazon in speeches to the United Nations and Federal Supreme Court
While the government abuses its power to launch defamation campaigns on everyday citizens, APIB has taken matters into their own hands to lessen the impact of COVID-19 on Indigenous peoples and communities. More than 800 Indigenous people have died, and about 32,000 have been infected by COVID-19, according to data from APIB's National Committee...
Oil Companies Seek to End Clean-up of Amazon Oil Spill Despite Ongoing Pollution
Affected Indigenous communities in Ecuador’s Amazon demand justice and share evidence that pollutants remain in two major rivers after the worst oil spill in the last 15 years
Quito, Ecuador – Ecuador's two oil pipeline operators prematurely halted clean-up operations last week, declaring the remediation complete despite evidence of ongoing pollution in both the Coca and Napo rivers. The companies are now seeking to close the door on the country's worst spill in the last 15 years by convening public meetings with...
Delayed Justice, Again
The Kichwa of Ecuador vow to appeal lawsuit over worst oil spill in the last fifteen years
"Today's ruling shows that the Ecuadorian justice system has once again put the interests of oil companies above the rights of Indigenous peoples and nature. The evidence of contamination and the impact on the lives of the Kichwa populations of the Coca and Napo rivers was overwhelming during the hearing. However, the judge, without law or logic...
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...
Amazonian Women Mobilize to Demand Justice and Support for Earth Defenders
The Amazonian women joined the march with the goal of amplifying their voices of resistance against extractivism
Over 100 Amazonian women, representing multiple Indigenous nations across Ecuador, came together to march for the dignity of their peoples, to reclaim their songs and wisdom, to re-ignite their fight against extractivism, and to address social inequality and the rampant impunity for those who attack defenders of nature.
Thousands in the Ecuadorian Amazon in Urgent Need After Extreme Floods
"This has everything to do with climate change."
As Indigenous peoples prepare for COVID-19, historic storms in the Ecuadorian Amazon have caused rivers to rise and have flooded communities including Sarayaku, Pacayaku, and Teresa Mama on the Bobonaza River. This has led to the collapse of bridges and destruction of homes, schools, and gardens to grow food and medicine.
COP25: Amazonian Indigenous Leaders Share Conclusions on the Summit
Hearing a contradiction between what is being said and what is being done, indigenous leaders call for global support to stop new oil drilling, mining exploration, and deforestation in the Amazon Sacred Headwaters
Madrid, Spain – Indigenous leaders representing twenty nationalities from Ecuador and Peru called for global support to stop oil drilling and mining in the Amazon Sacred Headwaters region – the most biodiverse terrestrial ecosystem on the planet.
Indigenous Leaders Call for Global Support to Stop New Oil Drilling and Mining in the Heart of the Amazon at COP 25
Madrid, Spain – Indigenous leaders representing 20 nationalities from Ecuador and Peru called for global support to stop oil drilling and mining in the Amazon Sacred Headwaters region – the most biodiverse terrestrial ecosystem on the planet. A new report released today demonstrates that this is more than a regional issue: this is a global crisis...
Indigenous Peoples Call for Urgent Action to Protect the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Region
Amazon rainforest and Indigenous rights under imminent threat from oil and mining
Lima, Peru – On the heels of widespread indigenous protests in Ecuador, and at the Latin American Parks Congress, the Indigenous federations that are part of the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative called for emergency support to stop the governments of Ecuador and Peru from expanding new fossil fuel, mining, and large-scale industrial development...
Declaration for the Protection of the Amazon Sacred Headwaters
We, the Indigenous Peoples of Ecuador and Peru together with our allies, call on the global community for solidarity, as our very survival depends on the survival of the Amazon rainforest which is under constant and unprecedented attack.
Power to the Protectors in Ecuador
Kichwa Communities Fight Fossil Fuel Expansion with Renewable Energy
This spring, we carried out the second install of our Power to the Protectors program in three Kichwa communities in the central Ecuadorian Amazon, all threatened by new oil expansion.
