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.
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.
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."
Amazon Watch is building on more than 28 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.
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.
Trouble for Oil in the Peruvian Amazon?
Reports of oil companies leaving the Peruvian Amazon made weekly headlines in March, providing encouragement to those of us who love the Amazon and know that humanity must move away from fossil fuels. In addition to the announcement by two oil companies that they will abandon drilling projects in important oil blocks, a Peruvian court annulled a...
We Are the Land
Indigenous lands help regulate the planet's climate, for they are obstacles to deforestation. There is ten times less deforestation in indigenous lands than in non-titled lands.
An Amazon Community Braces for "Monster" Gold Mine
According to Christian Poirier of Amazon Watch, "there is no plan for the removal of the mine waste – it's a ticking time bomb."
Toxic Mega-Mine Looms Over Belo Monte’s Affected Communities
On the banks of Brazil's lower Xingu River, a toxic controversy looms large, threatening to heap insult upon the grievous injuries of the nearby Belo Monte hydroelectric dam. Belo Sun would become Brazil's largest open-pit gold mine, straddling the territories of three indigenous peoples and other traditional communities that are already reeling...
Ecuador Election: No Good Option for the Amazon
Regardless of who wins, the response to the escalated social conflicts over extractive industry projects, rollback of indigenous rights, and criminalization of civil society protest will be an early and pressing challenge for the incoming administration.
Amazon Threatened by China-Ecuador Loans for Oil
Meeting contractual loan payments with oil is a major driver behind Ecuador's effort to open up new, pristine Amazon indigenous rainforest territory to oil drilling. All this new drilling has led to massive impacts in the Amazon rainforest that have been dire both for its world-renowned biodiversity and its indigenous peoples.
The Controversy That Could Swing Ecuador’s Election
Indigenous people make up as much as 30 percent of Ecuador's 16.5 million citizens, and their swing to Lasso could be the deciding factor in the run-off elections.
Community-Based Projects Are a Climate Change Solution and Need Our Support
Throughout these years of peaceful resistance and advocating for the Amazon, I have grown to understand that a great way to fight against exploitative oil, gas, and mining development is to support community-based economic initiatives.
Community Consent: Business Lessons from the Amazon
From the snow-covered plains of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe of North Dakota to Shuar rainforest territories in the Ecuadorian Amazon, there is a resurgence of resistance to extractive industry projects around the world. These conflicts have major implications for China, Latin America's largest trading partner, whose state run companies are...
"It Opens the Floodgate"
"You cannot deny land to indigenous people that are ancestrally attached to it and expect them to continue to exist as a culture," said Christian Poirier, program director at Amazon Watch.
Is Chinese Development Finance Enabling Rainforest Destruction in Brazil?
Brazil's current economic and political shifts and its effort to attract Chinese investment are part of a concerted effort by the Brazilian government to industrialize vast sections of the Amazon, with grave ramifications for the forests, rivers, and peoples who help sustain this irreplaceable biome for the benefit of humanity.
Amazon Land Battle Pits Indigenous Villagers Against Might of Ecuador State
Military drones and police helicopters circle above the Shuar indigenous village of El Tink, an Amazonian community in Ecuador where a high-profile dispute against a Chinese copper mine has become a standoff and a siege.
Indigenous Leaders Denounce Ecuadorian Government Over Mining Conflicts
"We are being persecuted by the military and the police who are invading the territories of the Shuar communities," Elvia Dagua, a local indigenous member of CONFENIAE told the media Thursday. "They have destroyed homes. So the Shuar people, women, men, and children have had to flee."
Samba Parade Spotlights Threats To Rivers, Forests and Indigenous Rights at Rio’s Carnival
In a colorful and highly energized samba parade at Rio de Janeiro's world-famous Carnival on Monday morning, Imperatriz Leopoldinense, one of Brazil's most traditional and respected samba schools, paid a special tribute to indigenous peoples of the Amazon's Xingu River, highlighting threats to their territories, livelihoods and rights.
China’s Amazon Footprint Gets Scant Attention in Ecuador’s Election
The impacts of new drilling in the Amazon rainforest have been dire both for its world-renowned biodiversity and its indigenous peoples, many of whom have long rejected controversial drilling plans on their lands.
Saramurillo: Justice This Time for the Indigenous Peoples of the Peruvian Amazon?
In the face of too many previous agreements left unfulfilled, more unity is the best strategy forward, affirm the indigenous federations united in Saramurillo.
Indigenous Rights and Territories Under Attack in Brazil
Make no mistake about it, indigenous rights and territories are under attack in Brazil. We recently reported on attempts by the administration of President Michel Temer to roll back indigenous rights and environmental protections, moves that fundamentally undermine land demarcation norms while portending dire consequences for the Amazon and its...
Siemens, the Pope and the Law of the Jungle
At Belo Monte, the writing is on the wall because, all over the Amazon, new dams are planned or being built. A key role in the protection of the forests, rivers and animals will now be played by the indigenous person.
Brazil Alters Indigenous Land Demarcation Process, Sparking Conflict
With the issuance of a federal decree in mid-January, Brazil's government announced major changes to the procedure by which it formally demarcates indigenous lands – a move applauded by the ruralistas industrial agriculture lobby and large landowners, but greeted with alarm by indigenous land rights activists.
