"As Indigenous Peoples at CBD COP 15, we demand Indigenous-led solutions to the climate crisis and for our rights to be respected. Our peoples are the keepers of Biodiversity around the world. It is through our solutions that we will see the world through the climate crisis."
Land Rights
A Powerful Beacon of Hope in the Colombian Amazon
The Siona of Buenavista are a beacon of resistance against incursions of oil companies like GeoPark into their territories. Solidarity from Colombian and international allies can be crucial to their success.
Bolsonaro Loses Presidency in Win for the Amazon!
The world is celebrating Brazilians’ close election for Lula, in a victory for the Amazon, Indigenous peoples, and democratic values
"This is a victory of love, of hope, of truth, of freedom, and of our fragile democracy that is now being strengthened," said Sonia Guajajara, Congresswoman-elect.
Brazilian People Deny Far-Right Bolsonaro Second Term, in Win for the Amazon
In a fierce dispute between Lula and Bolsonaro for Brazil’s next presidency, Brazilians chose the Amazon, Indigenous peoples, and democratic values
In the most important election for the planet, which defined the future of the Amazon and therefore of all humanity, almost 51% of Brazilians chose democracy and elected Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, putting an end to the nightmare lived for the last four years under Bolsonaro.
First-Ever Regional Court Case Involving Rights of Uncontacted Peoples Awaits Verdict
The Inter-American Court of Human rights is evaluating the first-ever case concerning the rights of Indigenous communities in voluntary isolation
Mongabay | In the case Tagaeri & Taromenane Indigenous people vs the Ecuadorian state, lawyers representing the communities in voluntary isolation say the Ecuadorian state has failed to protect these populations and propelled the extractive industry in the area, putting pressure on the rainforest and increasing conflict between local communities.
Amazon Watch is building on more than 25 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.
Ecuador Declares Temporary Moratorium on New Oil and Mining Concessions
Ecuador’s Indigenous movement and the government of Guillermo Lasso have agreed to a temporary moratorium on all new oil and mining concessions. This major development puts the country’s plans to double oil production and significantly boost mining investment in question.
Vanguard Funds Indigenous Rights Violations in Peru’s Amazon
Asset manager Vanguard must stop investing in Indigenous rights violations and environmental destruction
The Achuar and Wampis have good reason to oppose further oil extraction: The Northern Peruvian Oil Pipeline, which runs through their territories, has repeatedly ruptured, causing countless spills and constant threats to the environment and safety of their communities.
The Voices of Amazonian Peoples Led This Year’s Pan-Amazon Social Forum
The forum strongly condemned the so-called development paradigm, in which governments and large corporations are complicit in destruction with projects that privatize profits and socialize losses over Amazonian peoples and territories.
Sarayaku’s Kawsak Sacha Is What the World Needs Now!
The Kawsak Sacha proposal aims to sustainably preserve and conserve territorial spaces, the material and spiritual relationship established there by native peoples with the living forest and the beings that inhabit it.
Oil in the Peruvian Amazon: Obscene Profits Through Immoral Strategies
Legal attacks against the protections for isolated Indigenous peoples and Peru’s FPIC law are examples of how the oil lobby keeps the current legal framework – the product of years of struggle by Indigenous movements and civil society – under constant siege.
Set Ablaze Again, the Amazon Cannot Survive Another Bolsonaro Term
Since 2019, the Brazilian Amazon has seen record-breaking levels of fires and destruction. Under the Bolsonaro administration, the levels of destruction have skyrocketed and continue to worsen each year as his rhetoric and policies encourage land grabbing, destruction, and violence against Indigenous peoples. This crisis is not only a threat to...
Indigenous Lawyer from the Brazilian Amazon Builds Solidarity and Support in DC
Following increased violence and the murders of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira in Brazil, attorney Eliesio Marubo travels to the U.S. to demand justice
“The problems in our region are not new but the violence has escalated to unprecedented levels because under Bolsonaro, illegal operations have gone unpunished.”
Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira: Indigenous Lawyer Who Coordinated Search Will Travel to DC to Build Congressional Support for Justice
The attorney for The Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley, Eliesio Marubo, is traveling to the U.S. for meetings with members of Congress, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the State Department, journalists, and allies. The objective of his visit is to build Congressional support for action and accountability for Dom and...
The Business Case for Indigenous Rights
Companies must account for Indigenous peoples’ human and land rights to understand and address business and climate risks
Stanford Social Innovation Review | As the effects of climate change worsen and concern grows, financial regulators are turning their attention to how companies report on climate-related risks. One crucial factor that businesses and investors may overlook is Indigenous and tribal peoples’ rights.
Statement in Solidarity With the Families of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips
Let’s remember Bruno and Dom alive, in the middle of the Amazon with Indigenous peoples, walking through the forest and singing the Kanamari song. Let us remember the courage of these men and their love for the Amazon and its peoples, their shared mission to defend the forest and life, tirelessly denouncing the criminals who plunder natural...
Disappearance of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips Demonstrates Impunity Under Bolsonaro
The heartbreaking disappearance of Brazilian Indigenous rights advocate Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips has once again revealed that under Bolsonaro the Amazon has been handed over to illicit networks and industries.
Immersed in Crisis, Peru Neglects Amazon’s Destruction
Associated Press | Peru has descended into one of the worst political crises in its history and protection of its Amazon rainforest is failing, according to a report published Thursday.
Illegal Miners Terrorize Brazil’s Yanomami Communities
The Bolsonaro regime stands by despite murder and sexual assault
The Yanomami’s Hutukara Association has declared a humanitarian crisis in the wake of the reported rape and killing of a 12-year-old Yanomami girl by miners, the disappearance of a 3-year-old child, and attacks on the Yanomami’s Aracaçá village that have placed the Amazonian community “on the verge of disappearance” because of violence caused by...
Peru Commits to Expel Narcotraffickers and Return Indigenous Lands
While attacks continue, the Kakataibo people are reaching new agreements with the government to get their land back
While Peru is in an ongoing political crisis, the Indigenous movement clamors for justice. The demands are clear: prevent the killings of threatened Earth defenders, pursue legal actions against the murderers, and guarantee Indigenous territorial integrity.
Massive Belo Sun Gold Mine Project Blocked in Brazil
Indigenous and traditional communities celebrate as courts hand big loss to the Canadian mining company
The ruling is the result of sustained efforts by civil society and institutional allies to prevent the installation of Belo Sun's massive gold mine and to seek redress for the illegal acts committed in the course of the project's environmental licensing process.
Annual Indigenous Free Land Camp Occupies Brasília
“The demarcation of lands of all Indigenous peoples in Brazil continues to be our main goal. But to guarantee the demarcation, the protection of our lands, we must also 'Indigenize politics' with the presence of diversity, of women occupying the positions of power and decision-making positions.”
Canadian Banks Injected $5.8 Billion into Mining Companies Tied to Forest Destruction and Human Rights Violations
Forests & Finance Coalition, Walhi, and MAM launched a preliminary dataset revealing the financial flows to several forest-risk mining companies that operate in the world’s three largest tropical forest basins. Banks from Canada, the United States, and Japan are among the largest financiers of mining companies in the tropics
Brazil’s President Bolsonaro is using a possible fertilizer shortage caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine to justify his attempt to ram contentious legislation through Congress.
Indigenous Communities Need Your Solidarity as Destructive Mining Bill Advances
Despite massive opposition, politicians in Brazil approved expediting a bill that could lead to the loss of over 16 million hectares of forests and cause irreversible destruction to Indigenous territories
Indigenous peoples have repeatedly mobilized to oppose Bill 191/2020, and polls show that 86% of Brazil’s public is against mining on Indigenous lands. The Munduruku refer to it as "the project of death that is dividing our people and bringing violence [against those who] fight to defend our land."
Bolsonaro Trying to Ram Through Mining Bill on False Pretenses; Canadian Mining Company to Profit.
Brazil’s President Bolsonaro is using a possible fertilizer shortage caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine to justify his attempt to ram contentious legislation through Congress.
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.
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.
Signs of Hope in the Peruvian Amazon
Amid the onslaught of negative news, we welcome signs of progress. This Tuesday we received word that the confessed trigger-man in the fatal shooting of Indigenous leader Arbildo Meléndez has finally been captured. His widow, Zulema Guevara, has courageously fought for justice in her husband’s case, herself becoming the target of death threats.
Brazilian Government To Hand Over Public Lands to Canadian Company In Back Door Deal
Land reform agency has negotiated with Belo Sun Mining corp. to reduce a public land settlement to favor a gold mining project in the Amazon. Families in the area have not been consulted. Negotiations are “null and void,” says Public Defender.
Oakland, CA – The federal agency tasked with land reform policy in Brazil, INCRA, has reduced the area of a settlement created 22 years ago to make room for gold mining. The negotiation, settled with a contract signed recently with the Canadian company Belo Sun Mining Corp., was revealed last week.
Ecuador’s Constitutional Court to Issue New Ruling on FPIC
Ecuadorian government granted an environmental license in 2011 for San Carlos Panantza mining project without consultation and consent of the Shuar Arutam
“These cases are not isolated. There is not a single mining or oil project where these rights have been adequately complied with, so it is urgent that the Court rule in accordance with international human rights standards,” said Carlos Mazabanda, Amazon Watch Ecuador Field Coordinator.
