Amazon Watch
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    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.

    The Fight Against Climate Change Is Also a Fight Against Organized Crime

    Belém COP cannot succeed without taking decisive action

    Open Global Rights | Belém can be remembered as a turning point – when the world stopped treating the Amazon as a victim and began dismantling the criminal economies driving its collapse.

    November 6, 2025
    5,449 views
    4 min read

    Standing With the Kakataibo

    Resilience amid Peru’s crisis of corruption and organized crime

    The Kakataibo have made it clear to us: they will not give up. Their fight to reclaim and defend their ancestral lands has lasted more than two decades, and this is simply another chapter in a long struggle for survival and justice.

    October 22, 2025
    7,583 views
    4 min read

    Defending the Amazon Against Illegal Economies

    The Wampís Nation’s fight to defend their territory against an invasion of illegal mining

    The Wampís’ fight is not just local, it’s global. Defending the Amazon means defending the planet.

    October 22, 2025
    5,892 views
    1 min read

    Defending Mocoa in Southern Colombia

    Art, culture, and children’s resistance against Giant Copper mining threat

    “Mocoa is the most conserved territory, where the mountains hold the winds of the ancestors, which descend to embrace the Amazon.”

    October 1, 2025
    4,241 views
    3 min read

    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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    An Important People-Powered Win in Brazil, but the Fight Isn’t Over

    A partial veto protects key environmental safeguards, but dangerous loopholes still put the Amazon at risk

    With COP30 in Belém just months away, Brazil had a chance to send the world a bold message about its commitment to climate justice. Instead, it delivered a mixed one.

    August 12, 2025
    7,554 views
    3 min read

    You Can’t Kill a River

    Why the Volta Grande still lives – and how the peoples of the Xingu continue to oppose mining company Belo Sun

    In the Volta Grande do Xingu, the river still runs. Even with turbines and licenses strangling it, the Xingu endures because the peoples who protect it refuse to disappear.

    July 24, 2025
    7,731 views
    3 min read

    2024-2025 Annual Report

    In a world increasingly in denial about the consequences of climate change and fossil fuel extraction, Amazon Watch is doubling down on our grassroots partnerships.

    July 2025
    7,490 views
    2 min read

    Exclusive London Climate Week Preview of “When Waterfalls Die”

    New documentary by acclaimed journalist Brandi Morin captures Shuar People's resistance to copper mining project threatening 268 square kilometers of pristine Amazon rainforest

    “This isn’t just their story – it’s humanity’s final crossroads between ancient wisdom and corporate greed. When the last defender falls, we all lose something irreplaceable.”

    June 20, 2025
    3,557 views
    4 min read

    Mura People Rise Against Mining Invasion in Brazil

    A powerful new alliance emerges to confront extractivism on Indigenous lands

    “What happened at this large meeting was not just a gathering of the Mura most directly affected by the Brazil Potash project. Rather, the significance of this event lies in the fact that this struggle has become, first and foremost, the struggle of all Indigenous peoples.”

    June 10, 2025
    6,172 views
    6 min read

    “We Will Not Retreat:” Mura Take Land Defense to Global Stage at COP30

    Indigenous leaders mobilize internationally following court decisions greenlighting potash mining on their ancestral territory

    “They want to divide us so they can silence us. But what’s at stake is the future of our land, our water, and the life of our people. And we will not stand by in silence.”

    June 9, 2025
    3,417 views
    4 min read

    2023-2024 Amazon Defenders Fund Report

    Stories of Solidarity

    The Amazon Defenders Fund (ADF) is an activist-led solidarity fund built upon Amazon Watch’s multi-decade track record as a trusted partner to Indigenous nations and local organizations.

    April 2025
    6,460 views
    2 min read

    Militant Mothers of the Movement: Meet Maria Leusa Munduruku

    Maria Leusa Munduruku has emerged as a powerful defender of Munduruku territory in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon against a conflux of extractive megaprojects such as dams, mining, illegal logging, and the Ferrogrão mega-railway.

    March 27, 2025
    2,218 views
    3 min read

    Blood Gold in the Amazon: Belo Sun’s Mega-Mine Threatens People, Land, and Climate

    An infusion of new financing and lax regulation has rekindled the company’s aggressive efforts to greenlight its disastrous open-pit gold mine

    A recent cash infusion from Luxembourg-based investor La Mancha Resource Capital, combined with a shocking court ruling, has given the Canadian company new momentum to push forward with one of the most destructive mining projects the Amazon has ever faced.

    February 18, 2025
    5,507 views
    4 min read

    Major Victory to Halt Mining in the Heart of the Brazilian Amazon

    Brazilian judge annuls Belo Sun's land rights contract, delivering a major blow to the company's plans to build Brazil's largest open-pit gold mine

    This recent federal court decision annulling Belo Sun and INCRA’s contract is a crucial step toward justice, underscoring the resilience of the communities of the Volta Grande do Xingu.

    December 5, 2024
    6,181 views
    5 min read

    Brazilian Justice Voids Belo Sun Mining’s Concession

    In a major victory for the communities of the Amazon’s Volta Grande do Xingu, a judge’s ruling annulled the Canadian mining company’s contract with Brazil’s Land Reform Institute

    A Brazilian federal court issued a major setback to Belo Sun, declaring the contract that granted the company its land concession null and void.

    December 3, 2024
    2,289 views
    5 min read

    Ancestral Outcry: The Battle to Save the Tapajós River from Ferrogrão

    In a spirited direct action, hundreds of Indigenous people and allies blocked commodity shipping on a major Amazonian river for six hours to protest mounting agribusiness-driven threats

    Dozens of canoes lined with signs denouncing Ferrogrão formed a barrier blocking the traffic of barges transporting soy and other commodities.

    November 21, 2024
    3,194 views
    5 min read

    A Fossil-Free Amazon Has a Powerful New Ally

    A powerful new configuration of Parliamentarians for a Fossil-Free Future joined forces with Indigenous leaders at COP16 to usher in a new era of climate justice in the Amazon.

    November 7, 2024
    3,090 views
    5 min read