Amazon Watch
    Amazon Watch

    Oil and Gas

    Indigenous Peoples on the Front Lines of Criminal Economies in the Amazon Fight Back at COP16

    "Paper declarations, small projects, and militaristic approaches are failing to combat illegal mining and drug trafficking"

    "Prior consultation must be a key tool for implementing strategies to fight drug trafficking in the Amazon. Enough with empty declarations. We need real combined efforts between governments and our organizations if we want to defeat criminal economies."

    October 31, 2024
    4,485 views
    2 min read

    Indigenous Leaders Confront Criminal Economies at the U.N.

    As transnational criminal economies increasingly threaten the Amazon rainforest, Indigenous rights, and our global climate, Peruvian Indigenous leaders Miguel Guimaraes and Herlín Odicio traveled to Vienna to make one thing clear: the world must act now

    “Indigenous leaders who protect the Amazon are being assassinated or live under constant threat. Criminal actors pollute our rivers, dispossess our territories, recruit our children, violate our peoples, and even threaten the survival of those in voluntary isolation.”

    October 22, 2024
    1,551 views
    5 min read

    Oil Over Life: The Cost of Petroperú's Environmental Catastrophe

    New oil spill from the North Peruvian Pipeline devastates frontline Indigenous communities amid talks of restructuring state-run oil company Petroperú

    Last week, the notorious North Peruvian Pipeline leaked at least 6,000 liters of oil, directly threatening the lives and livelihoods of the Indigenous Quechua and Achuar peoples of the north Peruvian Amazon.

    October 16, 2024
    5,499 views
    5 min read

    Murder of Peruvian Indigenous Earth Defender Underscores the Importance of Indigenous Land Rights

    The discovery of murdered Peruvian Indigenous leader Gerardo Keimari Enrique underscores the need to center land titling and Indigenous rights as key strategies to protect the Amazon and Indigenous peoples

    "This tragic incident is yet another case of an Indigenous leader who was targeted while advocating for a full land title for his community's territory in a contested area of the Peruvian Amazon."

    October 11, 2024
    2,105 views
    2 min read

    Amazon Watch is building on more than 28 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.

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    Indigenous Leadership at Climate Week: Amplifying Voices for Global Action

    At New York's Climate Week, Indigenous leaders from across the Amazon demanded urgent solutions to the climate crisis, highlighting the destruction of the rainforest and calling for an end to fossil fuel extraction

    The global shift in climate policy that we need will only happen if leaders listen to the voices of Indigenous and frontline communities, and if we collectively push for action.

    October 4, 2024
    5,132 views
    9 min read

    Staring Down the Barrel: What Peruvian Oil Company’s Crisis Means for the Public

    Fate of cash-strapped Petroperú holds major implications for national economy, Indigenous groups and the climate

    The Bureau of Investigative Journalism | “In the long term, PetroPerú has a big problem: it is billions of dollars in debt, its core business is oil – and the world is decarbonizing”

    October 3, 2024
    6,359 views
    4 min read

    Oil Circuit and Human Rights

    Pipelines, spills and systematic violence against indigenous peoples in Peru

    This report analyzes the impacts generated by oil infrastructure in the northern Peruvian Amazon with emphasis on the human rights of Indigenous peoples.

    September 2024
    1,638 views
    1 min read

    ¡Sí a la Vida! Yes to Yasuní!

    The Waorani hold a historic summit to ensure oil stays in the ground as Ecuador misses deadline to decommission drilling in Yasuni

    Ecuador’s citizens made history by voting to keep fossil fuels in the ground in Yasuní. But the government’s failure to implement the referendum sets a dangerous precedent.

    September 4, 2024
    4,844 views
    5 min read

    Indigenous Women Denounce Violence and Call for Gender Justice in the Peruvian Amazon

    Peruvian authorities initially tried to minimize revelations of violence and sexual abuse at Indigenous public schools, but activists and civil society are not letting them cover it up

    In recent weeks, the Awajún and Wampís Women's Council made a shocking public denunciation of 524 cases of rape and abuse of children who attended public schools since 2010. 

    June 27, 2024
    6,441 views
    5 min read

    Investor Eye on the Amazon

    Updates for shareholders and activists concerned about rainforest protection and human rights

    The companies and banks behind Amazon destruction are feeling the heat as this year’s season of shareholder meetings comes to a close.

    June 2024
    5,631 views
    1 min read

    50 NGOs Urge President Biden to Pardon Human Rights Lawyer Steven Donziger

    Groups urge Biden to follow recommendation by the U.N. to launch an investigation into the reasons that triggered Mr. Donziger’s arbitrary detention

    “A pardon for Mr. Donziger will send a clear message that corporations in the U.S. cannot misuse the judicial system to criminalize human rights defenders."

    June 5, 2024
    5,599 views
    3 min read

    In 2024, Anti-Chevron Day Has Become Anti-Chevron Month

    With too many human rights violations to recognize in just one day, Chevron faces ever-growing opposition on the eve of its annual meeting

    On any list of worst corporate actors concerning human rights, the environment, accountability, transparency, and governance, Chevron consistently ranks at or near the top.

    May 23, 2024
    6,507 views
    5 min read

    Wall Street Banks Fund the Destruction of Our Indigenous Land

    Newsweek | As representatives of communities who pay the highest costs of this toxic business, Indigenous Peoples demand banks prohibit new financing of Petroperú, and prevent its clients from pursuing new oil expansion.

    May 20, 2024
    2,630 views
    4 min read

    Safeguarding the Right to Self-determination at UNPFII

    At the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Amazon Watch amplified Indigenous voices of strong female leaders underscoring the urgency of safeguarding the right to self-determination on the path to COP30

    Achieving Indigenous autonomies and territorial governance, where self-determination is exercised, requires dismantling the mandates imposed by colonial and extractivist states and transforming them based on indigenous worldviews of harmony and collectivity.

    May 14, 2024
    3,130 views
    4 min read

    Ecuadorians Vote to Strengthen Security and Reject Neoliberal Economic Reforms

    Ballot measures proposing a return to international arbitration mechanisms and that weaken labor laws lose by wide margin

    Ecuadorian voters sent a clear message to President Daniel Noboa on Sunday, in the country’s second referendum vote in under a year: they want security, but they saw through his attempt to sneak through right-wing economic reforms.

    April 24, 2024
    5,251 views
    5 min read