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.
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...
Washington, D.C. – Leonardo DiCaprio, Katy Perry, Uzo Aduba, Jane Fonda, Mark Ruffalo, Rosario Dawson, Alyssa Milano, Orlando Bloom, Joaquin Phoenix, Sigourney Weaver, Misha Collins Sônia Braga, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Alice Braga, Wagner Moura, and Fernando Meirelles are among a growing list of international artists supporting demands from...
Washington, DC - The Biden Administration should express concern to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro about the explosive situation facing the Munduruku Indigenous people in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, 12 members of the U.S. House of Representatives said today in a letter to U.S. Ambassador to Brazil Todd Chapman, led by Rep Raúl Grijalva...
The Canadian mining company, Belo Sun, experienced a setback in its plans to open a massive gold mine in the Xingu river: it lost authorization to meet with Indigenous communities during the pandemic due to a pressure campaign by Indigenous leaders and human rights organizations. Belo Sun is hardly the first extractive company to put its profit...
Jacareacanga, Pará, Brazil – The Munduruku people of the Amazon's upper Tapajós valley are facing escalating threats by armed illegal "wildcat" miners, known as garimpeiros. Yesterday, the Wakoborun Association office in Jacareacanga, Pará state, was attacked, burned, and defaced. The violence occurred shortly after a protest organized by...
We urgently demand that government agencies comply with their constitutional duties. If something happens to our people, we blame the Brazilian government. Even after receiving numerous reports of invasions and destruction of our territory in the middle of a pandemic, it fails to act and allows our people to be killed at the hands of a heavily...
Mongabay | "In Brazil the operations of corporations like the ones we mention above, into which BlackRock directs substantial investments on behalf of clients, have profound negative impacts on our communities, our forests, and the climate," APIB wrote. "You therefore have a responsibility for our future. And if the Amazon is destroyed, the future of the...
What does Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro – dubbed the "Trump of the Tropics" – do now that Donald Trump no longer occupies the White House? Steadfastly loyal to Trump, Bolsonaro was one of the last heads of state to recognize Joe Biden's victory. Now, Bolsonaro's diplomatic agents have launched a PR campaign in light of this new political...
Bloomberg | Environmental group Amazon Watch welcomed BlackRock's moves but said they didn't go far enough. BlackRock failed to identify transparent expectations, time lines and consequences for company inaction on these issues, according to Moira Birss, Amazon Watch's Climate and Finance Director. "BlackRock should adopt a definitive no-deforestation and...
Pará, Brazil – In a white paper published on February 10, 2021, the Brazilian National Indigenous Foundation provided details on "health protocols" so that Canadian mining company, Belo Sun, can hold meetings to present and validate its Environmental Impact Study to Indigenous residents from the Indigenous Lands located in Pará state – Arara da...
Amazon Watch | Anglo American is once again evading explanations for its intentions to mine on Indigenous territories in the Brazilian Amazon. On November 20, 2020, Anglo American stated that it had given up all applications for mining exploration inside Indigenous lands in Brazil. Following the release of the Complicity in Destruction III report by the...
We are fighting as our ancestors fought for the demarcation of our land – they walked without tiring, and so we will fight tirelessly. This stream belongs to us. This territory belongs to us. The pariwat say that the Munduruku have no spirits any longer – they only have traders. Only we do have the spirits of our ancestors with us, and we are...
Over the last seven years the Indigenous community of Unipacuyacu – inhabited by members of the Kakataibo people within the central region of the Peruvian Amazon – has lost five of their people at the hands of land-grabbers, who are linked to drug networks. This is the price they have paid for not ending their pursuit to secure legal titles for...
As an organization dedicated to advancing Indigenous rights and protecting the Amazon, we support the calls from our Indigenous partners for any new government to respect the clear mandate of Indigenous peoples for an end to new oil and mining extraction and guarantee their rights to territory, self-determination, and to live in an environment...
Indigenous lands are protected by the Brazilian Constitution, and current attempts to change this regulatory framework represent a major threat to the rights of Indigenous peoples, to the integrity of their territories – which remain barriers against deforestation and the degradation of Brazilian biomes – and to the ecological and climatic balance...
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