In a major victory for indigenous peoples, Brazil's Supreme Court ruled unanimously this week in favor of indigenous land rights in two separate lawsuits, setting an important legal precedent.
Mining Out of the Amazon
Mining in the Amazon has terrible effects on the livelihoods and health of Indigenous peoples and frontline communities as well as the overall balance of the Amazon’s biological diversity. Yet, mining giants with well-known track records of devastation and rights violations are eyeing Indigenous and traditional communities’ lands and other protected areas in the Amazon.
Despite committing to withdraw from all mining interests in Indigenous lands, multinational companies continue to bulldoze through communities and their territories to complete their mining projects. Banks and asset managers are once again behind this extractive surge by financing these company’s projects.
Victory for Indigenous Rights as Brazil’s Supreme Court Rejects Government Proposal To Limit Land Rights
In unanimous rulings on two disputed indigenous land-titling cases, the Court dismissed a legal opinion issued by the Attorney General and endorsed by President Michel Temer, which argued for the rejection of land claims by indigenous peoples unless they inhabited their traditional territories at the time Brazil's 1988 Constitution was ratified.
Brazilian Firm Wants To Build New Dams in Amazon’s Aripuanã Basin
With the bancada ruralista mining / agribusiness lobby in control of the Temer government and Congress, a Brazilian company, Intertechne Consultores, sees it as an opportune time to revive a shelved plan to build dams in the Amazon’s Aripuanã basin.
It Could Cost $1 Billion To Clean Up the Oil in Peru’s Northern Amazon
Who is going to clean up Peru's northern Amazon after decades of companies spilling oil and dumping billions of barrels of toxic production waters? Certainly not US company Occidental which ran the biggest concession, Lot 1-AB, until 2000, nor, it would seem, Petroperu, which ran the other major concession, Lot 8, until 1996 and operates the...
We Are Made of the Sacred!
A mobilization of the Munduruku people, which began two months ago by women concerned with defending sacred places and indigenous rights and led to an occupation of the construction site of the São Manoel hydroelectric dam project, ended on Friday. The Munduruku, however, have made it clear that their struggle continues.
Amazon Watch is building on more than 25 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.
Desperate to Save His Job, Brazil’s President Temer Escalates Assault on Indigenous Peoples and Amazonian Forests
President Temer is personally driving an unprecedented series of assaults on human rights and environmental protection in Brazil. His actions must be categorically denounced as they portend disaster for native peoples, endangered biomes such as the Amazon, and humanity as a whole.
China’s Other Big Export: Pollution
A true climate leader would invest in the preservation of areas of global ecological importance rather than destroy them.
Brazilian Indigenous Group Occupies Amazon Dam, Halts Construction To Demand Rights
At dawn on Sunday, July 16th, 200 representatives of the indigenous Munduruku nation occupied the main work camp of the São Manoel hydroelectric dam on the Teles Pires River in the Brazilian Amazon, paralyzing the project.
Ecuadorian Government Refuses To Appear at Hearing on Threat of Extractive Industry to Indigenous Peoples
The absence of government representatives at the hearing doesn’t bode well for such a visit, nor for an improvement in respect for human rights in the country. Hopefully, the new government will soon remember that, as a member of the Organization of American States, it’s not an option but an obligation to participate in the IACHR.
Unexamined Synergies: Dam Building and Mining Go Together in the Amazon
"The truth is that installing a hydropower dam provokes the installation of mining projects. This never, or extremely rarely, is integrated into the licensing process as a synergetic effect."
Long Road Ahead To Indigenous Land and Forest Rights in Peru
"It’s important that there is a clear road map, so the benefits of land and forest tenure reforms reach the communities they were meant to benefit."
Amazon’s Forests Still Endangered Despite Brazilian President’s Vetoes of Environmental Protection Rollbacks
While the vetoes seemed a concession to demands from his Environmental Minister and a coalition of environmental and human rights organizations, they now appear to be mere greenwash of the government's anti-environment agenda and and an attempt distract the public from its alarming assault on the Amazon.
Amazon Forest Endangered Despite Brazilian President’s Vetoes of Environmental Protection Reductions
In a letter denouncing the president for using the vetoes to obscure his intention to reduce forest protections through other means, a group of Brazilian and international NGOs warned that ruralista lawmakers would likely amend the new legislation to slash the protections on an even greater area of forest.
UN Experts Slam Brazilian Government’s Attacks on Indigenous Rights
In response to the deepening human rights crisis gripping Brazil, last week a group of experts from the UN and IACHR forcefully denounced President Temer's administration and the agribusiness-affiliated ruralista congressional bloc for leading the assault on the rights of indigenous peoples.
Oakland Moves To Divest from Banks Violating Indigenous Sovereignty
While President Trump continues to impede progress towards battling climate change, the City of Oakland – Amazon Watch's hometown – took an important step yesterday toward divesting city funds from banks that fund fossil fuels, violation of indigenous sovereignty, and mass incarceration.
Indigenous Mobilization Results in Steps To End Criminalization in Ecuador
Although this isn't a full victory, it marks a significant step in the right direction toward ending the criminalization of indigenous protest in Ecuador and is a clear demonstration of the power of mass mobilization and international support.
Brazil’s Political Chaos Paves the Way for Environmental Plunder
As Brazil's President Michel Temer weathers a new storm of corruption allegations that threaten to topple his administration, the rightwing ruralista congressional bloc is cynically leveraging this political chaos to ram through its regressive and malicious agenda.
Brazil’s Archaeologists Join Fight To Preserve Country’s Ancient Lands
Brazil's archaeologists have lined up alongside conservationists and indigenous rights campaigners to protest against government proposals that they see as a threat to pre-colonial cultural heritage as well as forests, native communities and biodiversity.
Civil Society Organizations Unite in Resistance Against Brazil’s Attacks on Environmental and Indigenous Rights Protections
Environmental, indigenous, and human rights organizations from across Brazil and around the globe have united in resistance against measures being adopted by the Brazilian government and the ruralista lobby that violate human rights and jeopardize environmental protection.
Shipibo Leader Demands #LandRightsNow in Amazon and End To Repression of Indigenous Activists
Over the last several weeks, we were honored to support the activities of Shipibo indigenous activist Ronald Suárez at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York City and during the Peoples Climate March in Washington, DC.
El Pueblo de las Cascadas Amenazado Por la Minería
Este pueblo está enfrentando una gran amenaza ya que el estado ecuatoriano ha concesionado parte de su territorio para la implementación del proyecto de extracción de cobre a cielo abierto a la empresa Explocobres, subsidiaria de la transnacional china CRCC y Tongling.
The People of the Waterfalls Threatened By Mining
The Shuar are facing a great threat given the fact that the Ecuadorian government has sold concessions to part of their territory for an open-pit copper mining project run by the company Explocobres, a subsidiary of the Chinese companies CRCC and Tongling.
Historic Indigenous Mobilization Confronts Spiraling Threats To Rights and Resources in Brazil
"We affirm that we will not permit violence, rollbacks, and threats perpetrated by the Brazilian government and economic oligarchies against our lives and our rights. We call on Brazilian society and the international community to unite with the struggle of native peoples in defense of traditional territories, Mother Earth, and the well-being of...
Brazil’s Deforestation "Sheriff" Has Been Fired
According to Christian Poirier, Amazon Watch Program Director, "The dismissal of Thelma Krug reflects a growing wariness that the Brazilian government's tools for monitoring deforestation are not keeping pace with the diverse and sophisticated methods used by loggers to avoid detection."
Business as Usual: A Resurgence of Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon
The rise in deforestation over the last five years should not be a surprise, given that the underlying factors behind forest clearing continue to grow year by year.
Celebrating Earth Day, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Mobilize in Brazil and Globally to Demand Recognition of their Rights and Role in Alleviating the Impending Climate Crisis
Indigenous Peoples, local communities, social movements, environmental activists, and women's groups from 25 different countries today kicked off a week of protests, meetings, and events to demand respect for community land rights.
Brazil Suspends Belo Sun’s Gold Mine Licence, Stock Collapses
In February, a group of locals who opposed the project asked Pará authorities to suspend the recently issued construction licence for Volta Grande. They oppose the company’s planned use of cyanide during extraction of the precious metal, arguing that waste will be deposited in a dam located just 1.5 km from the Xingu River, a tributary of the...
Gold Mine Aggravates Tensions in Brazil’s Amazon Region
"Either Belo Sun throws us out of here or we throw them out."
Brazil Slashes Environment Budget by 43%
Brazil accounts for nearly two-thirds of the Amazon rainforest, the world's largest tropical forest. After several years of decline, deforestation – driven by beef, soy and timber industries – appears to be increasing again.
