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.
“There must be a general understanding that Indigenous lands, traditional territories, and protected areas in the Amazon are not available for mineral exploration, nor should they be, both because there must be respect for our constitutional right to self-determination as Indigenous peoples over our territories, and because of our lands’...
In the latest edition of the Complicity in Destruction series, research by APIB and Amazon Watch found that international financiers, including BlackRock, Vanguard and Capital Group, poured USD $54.1 billion into eight large mining companies, including Vale, Anglo American, and Belo Sun.
Brasília, Brazil – Today the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), alongside environmental and human rights organization Amazon Watch, launched Complicity in Destruction IV: How mining companies and international investors drive Indigenous rights violations and threaten the future of the Amazon.
Ecuador’s plans to greatly expand oil and mining extraction in the Amazon hit a major snag last week as the nation’s Constitutional Court handed down multiple decisions that affirm Indigenous rights and limit extraction.
The Volta Grande do Xingu is under imminent threat. Local communities and organized civil society have been responding to these aggressive attempts to hand over agrarian reform land to international mining company Belo Sun.
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.
“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.
Yesterday, Brazilian Military Police, including a squad of elite special police known as the BOPE, violently attacked a surveillance post maintained by the Macuxi people in the Indigenous community of Tabatinga, on Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Territory, Roraima state. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at peacefully assembled community...
Last Saturday, the government of Pará (along with other Amazon governors) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the LEAF Coalition to boost actions regarding sustainability and the bio-economy. While hailed by its advocates as an innovative step forward in halting deforestation, there are serious greenwashing concerns regarding the...
In partnership with Brazilian allies – the Climate Observatory and Greenpeace Brazil – Amazon Watch organized a flight over the Amazon rainforest with experts and key journalists to expose fires, deforestation, illegal mining, and cattle ranching in September. This initiative was central to our Amazon Ceasefire campaign and the shocking results of...
The Guardian | Sônia Guajajara, a prominent indigenous leader, said: "These are all highly orchestrated measures which are designed to take away the land rights of indigenous people and open these lands up for exploitation … It's all about profit and money. We champion biodiversity, keeping the forest standing, which is precisely what ensures us life. All they...
Reuters | "We invite the global community to join us to reverse the destruction of our home and by doing so safeguard the future of the planet," said José Gregorio Diaz Mirabal, lead coordinator for COICA, which represents Indigenous groups in nine Amazon-basin nations.
Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso issued Executive Decrees 95 and 151 which immediately formalize profound transformations of Ecuador's oil and mining policies. These documents have raised our concern about the violation of our essential rights to participate in decisions that may affect us. These new policies risk serious and irreparable...
Oakland, CA – In a complaint to the Ontario Securities Commission, an international coalition of civil society organizations calls attention to the repeated dissemination of misleading information by Belo Sun Mining Corp (TSXV:BSX), including statements by CEO Peter Tagliamonte, downplaying socio-environmental, legal, and financial risks of the...
After months of pressure campaigns in solidarity with our partners, British mining company Anglo American finally responded to the demands of Indigenous peoples and took action. It withdrew 27 mining research permits which were slated to overlap Indigenous lands in Brazil, including the Munduruku territory of Sawré Muybu. Now, we need to make sure...
Pará, Brazil – British mining company Anglo American has formally committed to withdraw 27 approved applications to research minerals inside Indigenous territories located in the states of Mato Grosso and Pará from the Brazilian National Mining Agency (ANM). The commitment was announced on May 24, after pressure from the Munduruku people, the...
Brasilia, Brazil – Today, a group of Indigenous peoples, assembled in Brasilia as part of the "Rise for the Earth Camp," were attacked by "shock troop" police as they peacefully protested bill 490, a new proposed law that if enacted would definitively strip Indigenous land rights. The protest, including children and elders, to the Constitutional...
This week, thousands of Indigenous people from over 43 Indigenous nations are marching in Brasilia to call attention to the multiple emergencies they face and the Brazilian government’s complete failure to protect and uphold Indigenous rights. Among their demands is the immediate withdrawal of the anti-Indigenous and anti-environment legislative...
Quito, Ecuador – Today, Ecuador's Alliance for Human Rights delivered a hard-hitting new report to government authorities and the Ombudsman's Office on the critical situation of rights defenders in the country.
The Alliance for Human Rights in Ecuador released a report revealing the intensifying dangers that rights defenders face as part of their struggles to protect and defend their territories, autonomy, and identity, and shining a spotlight on government and industry complicity to undermine their vital work. It was delivered to government authorities...
Roraima, Brazil – Illegal miners fired shots at yet another Yanomami village. On June 5, criminal miners entered Indigenous territory and threw bombs towards the Maikohipi village, in the Palimiú region, where seven Yanomami communities are located.
Unchecked environmental destruction and violence are increasing rapidly on the lands of the Munduruku people, whose forests and waterways are being destroyed by illegal miners. At least ten prominent Munduruku leaders have routinely faced death threats for their resistance to this devastating illicit activity and last week brought a new wave of...
"Brazil’s Indigenous peoples have suffered a campaign of terror and violence for weeks and Bolsonaro’s federal government has done nothing effective to protect them from the well-financed criminals brazenly invading their territories," said Christian Poirier, Program Director at Amazon Watch.
"The escalation of violence within the Yanomami Territory without any concrete action by the Brazilian government is unconscionable. For eight days, illegal miners have attacked the Palimiú village with gunshots and are using tear gas to disperse the people. Women and children are being targeted and killed. As a result of the first attack, two...
Brasilia, Brazil – Illegal miners in seven boats with weapons of different calibers attacked the Palimiú village within the Yanomami Indigenous Land, the largest in Brazil, yesterday in Roraima. The Yanomami struck back with arrows and shotguns. The actual number of injuries and possible deaths is not yet known.
"Amazon Watch expresses complete support for our partner, a leader, and an example of the struggle for the rights of Indigenous peoples: Sonia Guajajara. We also extend our solidarity and support to APIB who tirelessly defend fundamental rights and democracy in Brazil against a government that today is known for its relentless attacks on...
We won a couple of battles in the last few days – and for that, we must celebrate – but the struggle to defend the Amazon rainforest and Indigenous peoples' rights continues. As we approach the next burning season in the Brazilian Amazon, we hope that Biden will call for accountability and leverage his new relationships to demand an end to the...
In our Indigenous worldviews, our grandmothers and grandfathers have taught us that when our people die, they return to the jungle...in other spirits, in other beings. In each encounter with María Taant, a Shuar leader from the Ecuadorian Amazon, she mentioned a boa that protected us. We heard what turned out to be her last song, in which she sang...
Leila Salazar-López, Executive Director of Amazon Watch made the following statement about Bolsonaro's speech: "Bolsonaro once again lied to the international community. He said he strengthened regulatory bodies to protect the environment, when in fact, he weakened them. Bolsonaro boasted about increasing the budget of these regulatory bodies when...
