Amazon Watch

Land Rights

Amazonian Communities Move To Protect Tocantins River Fish Nursery

Community-led heritage declaration and federal petition aim to protect a unique and biodiverse 43-kilometer rocky ecosystem threatened with destruction in 2027

“We learned to fish by knowing every rock, every eddy, and every path through the Pedral. You cannot separate our lives from the Pedral do Lourenção.”

The Amazon Is Not a Resource Reserve: It Is a Territory of Life

This week, Indigenous peoples and communities from the nine countries of the Amazon Basin are gathering at the Pan-Amazonian Social Forum in Puyo, Ecuador. The gathering is considering how to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels.

El País | We know another kind of wealth. It is in our rivers, in the animals and plants, in the knowledge passed down by our elders, and in the relationships that allow the world as we know it to continue to exist.

Indigenous Communities and Social Movements Unite Against Mining in Ecuador’s Amazon

The action, held on the Jatunyaku River in Napo, formed part of the official program of the XII Pan-Amazonian Social Forum under the banner “Adoke Öme – One Territory, Free from Extractivism.”

On the Jatunyaku River, community representatives unfurled two banners bearing the messages that have echoed for years: "Water is life” and "Love the Amazon."

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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Belo Sun’s Reported “Legal Victory” Does Not Resolve Key Disputes Over Amazonian Gold Project

Brazilian court decision dismissed a duplicative claim without ruling on Indigenous consultation, environmental assessments, tailings-dam safety, or ongoing legal challenges related to Indigenous rights and public land access on the Xingu River’s Volta Grande.

“Belo Sun has an established pattern of making questionable statements to investors about the standing of its mega-mine, both concerning its legal standing and level of standing with affected communities.”

They Delivered Justice, Not a Favor

The Remanso Massacre was not an isolated act. It is part of a wider pattern of violence sweeping across the Colombian Amazon and the tri-border zone where Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador converge.

El Niño Returns to an Amazon Already on the Brink

Global El Niño and Coastal El Niño could combine to create wildfire conditions resembling the catastrophic Amazon fire seasons of 2019 and 2024

A future where forests thrive and Indigenous rights are respected is possible. But it requires acting with far greater urgency than the world has managed so far.

Brazil’s Supreme Court Approves Reduction of Amazonian Park, Paving the Way for Megarailroad

Despite the ruling, the Ferrogrão “grain railway,” backed by U.S.-based Cargill, remains stalled without an environmental license and continues to face major legal and regulatory challenges

Brazil’s Supreme Court upheld a law reducing the size of the Jamanxim National Park, allowing the Ferrogrão railway project to move closer to environmental licensing.

Brazilian Court Mounts Pressure on Canadian Mining Companies Operating in the Amazon

Court of Appeals rulings reinforce Indigenous claims concerning lack of consultations while prohibiting government agencies from representing Canadian interests in legal proceedings

“Waking up to this news brought us extreme happiness. Every victory, small or large, strengthens our work even more."

Hope and Action To Phase Out Fossil Fuels

Traveling back to Bogotá from the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in Santa Marta, Colombia, I struggled to name a feeling I had never experienced after a climate conference: hope!

Indigenous Peoples Call on U.N. Action as Organized Crime Expands Across the Amazon

Indigenous leaders who gathered at the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues are demanding a decisive shift away from failed militarized responses toward rights-based approaches that center Indigenous territorial governance, autonomy, and community-led security systems in efforts to confront organized crime. They warn that current state responses are not only insufficient but, in many cases, actively deepen violence and insecurity in their territories.

Indigenous leaders who gathered at the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues are demanding a decisive shift away from failed militarized responses toward rights-based approaches that center Indigenous territorial governance, autonomy, and community-led security systems in efforts to confront organized crime.

A New Gold Rush Threatens the Amazon

Whenever gold returns to the center of global geopolitics, the Amazon comes back into the crosshairs. The war between the United States and Iran has put the metal back on the radar of markets, investors, and the extractive industry.

Amazon Watch and Allied Organizations Release Landmark Report on Amazon Crime

In the context of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Amazon Watch, together with allied organizations, presents the first report to analyze how illicit economies and repressive government responses threaten the rights, territories, and physical and cultural survival of Indigenous peoples.

Brasília Becomes Indigenous Territory

Last week, Brazil’s capital Brasília was transformed into a center of Indigenous resistance. With more than 7,000 Indigenous people occupying the capital, the 2026 Free Land Camp (ATL) pressured Brazil’s government to uphold native land rights

Major Indigenous Protest in Brazil Targets Belo Sun Gold Mine Project

Thousands of Indigenous people marched in Brazil’s capital yesterday, during the second day of the 2026 Free Land Camp (ATL), the country’s largest Indigenous mobilization, to denounce land rights violations driven by large-scale mining, agribusiness, and logging projects.

“The rainforest speaks with the voice of a woman.”

Ecuador’s Indigenous Women March Against Oil

On International Women's Day, Indigenous women from across the Ecuadorian Amazon traveled by foot, car, and canoe to Puyo with a single, unified demand: No more oil in the Amazon.