The Guardian | Over the last few months – as Peru helped guide the United Nations climate negotiations – five separate oil spills along a main oil pipeline through the Amazon have spewed thick black clots of crude across jungle and swamp and carpeted local fishing lagoons with dead fish.
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.
Thousands of Marchers Demand Just Solution at UN Climate Talks in Lima
Indigenous peoples from the Andes to the Amazon joined trade unionists, students and women’s groups in demonstration in the Peruvian capital
The Guardian | From the Amazon to the Andes, thousands of activists marched through the streets of Lima on Wednesday to demand a just solution to climate change. The march through the traffic-choked streets put a human face on the United Nations climate negotiations, a process largely confined to suited bureaucrats working behind the high walls of a military...
Fracking, REDD, Lima Climate Talks...All Slammed at Nature Rights Tribunal
13 judges meet in Peru to hear accusations that the rights of “Mother Earth” are being violated
The Guardian | "[REDD gives] permits to pollute," Smithie told the Tribunal. "[It means] forests of the world acting as a sponge for northern industrial countries' pollution. They can pollute if they grab forests in the global south."
Ecuador Indigenous Leader Found Dead Days Before Planned Lima Protest
Shuar leader José Isidro Tendetza Antún missing since 28 NovemberActivists believe death linked to opposition to state-Chinese mine project
The Guardian | The body of an indigenous leader who was opposed to a major mining project in Ecuador has been found bound and buried, days before he planned to take his campaign to climate talks in Lima.
Why the Result of Brazil's Elections Could Be Bad News For the Climate
ThinkProgress | Rousseff is coupling her strategy of hydropower expansion in the Amazon with a heavier reliance on fossil fuels. Projects like Belo Monte are typical of Rousseff’s development strategy. Many other large scale infrastructure projects of high environmental impact and dubious utility are in the works, such as the diversion of the Sao Francisco River...
Amazon Watch is building on more than 28 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.
Elections in Brazil: a Win for Rousseff, and China
Now that president Dilma Rousseff has won re-election, Chinese investment in Brazilian energy and agriculture looks set to keep booming
Chiina Dialogue | “China sees electricity from Brazil's Amazon dams as part of a supply chain delivering energy-intensive aluminum and steel directly from a region rich in these resources.”
Amazon Tribe Fights Brazil Dam Project
BBC News | Over the last few months some 13,000 Munduruku have been protesting against government plans to build a series of hydroelectric dams that will flood part of their land on the upper reaches of the Tapajos river.
Brazil: Gunmen Threaten to Assassinate Leading Amazon Shaman
Davi Kopenawa, shaman and internationally renowned spokesman for the Yanomami tribe in Brazil's Amazon rainforest, has demanded urgent police protection following a series of death threats by armed thugs reportedly hired by goldminers operating illegally on Yanomami land.
Brazil Spends Billions on "Green" World Cup, but Does Little to Protect Environmentalists
South American nation holds the dubious distinction of having the highest number of murders of environmental activists
Earth Island Journal | Brazil is today the most dangerous place in the world to be an environmental activist. By the end of Sunday's final match, an estimated 3.7 million people will have flocked to Brazil to support their home teams. And if statistics hold true, at least two Brazilian environmental activists will have been murdered over the course of the tournament.
Judge Revokes Mining License in Brazilian Amazon
Citing Belo Sun's failure to assess the impacts of its planned mega-mine on nearby indigenous communities, a federal judge rescinded the company's licenses, putting the brakes on yet another Amazon extractive industry tragedy.
Brazil Suspends Belo Sun's Gold Mine Licence
The Globe and Mail | "Belo Sun has already shown they want to do the absolute minimum to receive their license to drill and it's encouraging that the federal courts have shown they are not going to let this slide," said Christian Poirier, an activist with the organization Amazon Watch. "Clarifying that you're going to use this much arsenic or dump that much slag by...
Brazil Court Revokes License for Canadian Gold Mine in Amazon
Reuters | Judge Claudio Henrique de Pina said it was "unquestionable" that the mine would have a "negative and irreversible" impact on the quality of life and cultural heritage of the Paquiçamba, Arara da Volta Grande and Ituna/Itatá indigenous communities that straddle the Xingu river.
Brazil Revokes Canadian Belo Sun’s License to Gold Mine in Amazon
Mining.com | A Brazilian federal court has revoked Canadian miner Belo Sun Mining's license for the Volta Grande project, which would have become the country's largest gold mine, in the Amazonic state of Para. The ruling, which established the miner failed to assess the impact on local indigenous communities, is a major blow to Belo Sun's ambitions, said...
"We Are Fed Up!"
In honor of Indigenous Peoples Day in Brazil last month, a group of high-profile Brazilian artists announced that they were fed up with the mounting attacks against Brazil's indigenous peoples and called on the public to take urgent action in support of indigenous rights.
A Dream, and "Nothing Else Matters"
"It was the happiest day of my life that I never saw coming. It was a victory and now I know I can smile again to life. On that day nothing else, not even all of what my family had been through, mattered."
Chinese Banks Ignore Pleas of Ecuador Mining Campaigners
The failure to respond to an NGO letter challenging investment in the Mirador mining project has played to Ecuadorian fears about China's growing clout
China Dialogue | "The recently acquired debt is driving a new Amazonian oil boom, setting the stage for a major battle over rights and resources that will shape the future of the Amazon and its people."
In Pictures: "Klamazon" Brings Unity and Hope
A recent delegation led by Amazon Watch unites indigenous youth from the Klamath and Xingu rivers
My journey over the past four years in this fight against the Belo Monte dam has been intense, but accompanying the Klamath delegation to the Xingu brought hope not only to the local populations of the Xingu, but also to myself!
"Rivers like the Klamath and the Xingu are the bloodlines of every human on the planet."
Indigenous youth unite for rivers
The Xikrin, Juruna and Arara are not alone in facing threats to their rights and environments. Many more monster dam and mining projects are on the chalkboard for the Amazon.
Brazil Land Disputes Spread as Indians Take on Wildcat Miners
Reuters | As Brazil struggles to solve land disputes between Indians and farmers on the expanding frontier of its agricultural heartland, more tensions over forest and mineral resources are brewing in the remote Amazon.
Klamath River Youth Travel to Brazil to Join Belo Monte Dam Fight
"We want to show solidarity in the struggle to preserve and protect inherited cultures and natural resources from shortsighted projects like the proposed Belo Monte dam."
Brazil: Munduruku People Kick Miners Off Indigenous Territory
Terra Magazine | The resolute action demonstrates that the Mundurukú have not been bowed by intimidation: they are taking matters into their own hands and will continue to do so in defense of their lands, rivers, and future generations.
The Battle of Belo Monte
All about the third largest dam in the world
Folha de S.Paulo | São Paulo, Brazil – Today, the Folha website published the English version of "The Battle of Belo Monte", the first multimedia article from the "All About" series that launched other digital dossiers over 2014.
A Bank That May Be Too Big for Brazil
Washington Post | Economists and opposition leaders say this focus on Brazil's "national champions" neglects smaller, nimbler firms that are developing new technologies and products to diversify a commodity-dependent economy. They also say that BNDES's huge loans are fueling inflation that the Central Bank of Brazil must scramble to control.
Mundurukú Indians in Brazil Protest Tapajós Dams
IPS | The Brazilian government, which is already building the Belo Monte mega-dam on the Xingú river in the northeastern Amazon state of Pará, also wants to construct another huge hydropower complex on the Tapajós river, in the same state.
Gold Mine Near Controversial Belo Monte Dam Suspended
Mongabay.com | "We applaud the MPF for taking vigorous steps to uphold Brazilian environmental and human rights legislation, putting the brakes on a project that would heap further tragedy on the communities already faced with the disastrous Belo Monte dam," said Amazon Watch's Christian Poirier in a statement.
Brazil Prosecutors Issue Warning on Belo Sun Gold Project
The Wall Street Journal | Rio De Janeiro, Brazil – Brazilian federal prosecutors issued a warning Wednesday that they could seek to block licensing for the country's largest gold-mining project because Canada's Belo Sun Mining Corp. hasn't produced a study explaining its impact on local indigenous communities.
Consortium Building Dam in Brazil Investigated
Associated Press | Sao Paulo, Brazil – Federal prosecutors are investigating allegations that the consortium building a huge dam in the heart of the Amazon rain forest spied on an environmental activist group opposed to the dam.
The Zápara Language: Nonmaterial World Patrimony May Soon Disappear
Today is International Mother Language Day, a day promoted by UNESCO to recognize the intrinsic value in the diversity of languages across the world and the importance of their conservation for the good of humanity.
Brazil Wants More Research on Amazon Gold Mine Before Canadian Company Proceeds
Brazilian government urges more studies on how Belo Sun Mining Corporation’s Volta Grande venture will affect the environment and indigenous peoples.
Toronto Star | The Brazilian government wants to see more research on a massive gold-mining project near the Amazon River before the Canadian firm behind it goes ahead with developments.
