Oakland, CA – Today, Amazon Watch released a response to a letter from Petroperú, a state-owned Peruvian oil company, that attempted to contradict a recent blog on Vanguard's financing of the oil company.
Peru
Pluspetrol Norte: A History of Unpaid Sanctions and Oil Spills in the Peruvian Amazon
Mongabay | “The situation never improves; all the companies have had spills from OXY, Pluspetrol, and Petroperu. The pipes are decayed; they’ve been installed for years, and for that reason, [the land] is constantly being polluted.”
Victory: Corporations Behind Climate Week Exposed for Ties to Amazon Destruction
Thousands of Indigenous, frontline, and community activists gathered at NYC Climate Week demanding climate justice
After years of virtual events, Climate Week 2022 coincided with the gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly, bringing thousands to New York City to hold leaders accountable for the escalating climate crisis and making the presence of Indigenous peoples more important than ever.
Amazonian Leaders: Climate Week Sponsors Complicit in Destruction of Amazon Rainforest, Indigenous Land
At press conference in New York City, Indigenous leaders from Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru expose U.S. financial institutions for projects harming Indigenous communities
New York, NY – New York Climate Week sponsors, including BlackRock and Vanguard, were among the American financial institutions exposed for financing the destruction of the Amazon and Indigenous land at a press conference this week held by Indigenous leaders from the Amazon region and environmental and human rights group Amazon Watch.
Climate Week NYC: Peruvian Oil Company Petroperú is Toxic for International Investors
New Amazon Watch report details Petroperú's threats to the climate, Indigenous rights, and its investors' bottom line
New York, NY – Peruvian state-owned oil company Petroperú poses extreme risks for investors, according to a new report by Amazon Watch released during New York Climate Week.
Amazon Watch is building on more than 25 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.
The Risks of Investing in Petroperú
This risk assessment describes the political, social, financial, environmental, and legal risks associated with investing in Petroperú. It also compiles the perspective of some communities that could be affected by the threat of oil operations by Petroperú, in particular, the Achuar People of the Pastaza River and the Autonomous Territorial...
Amazonian Leaders Expose U.S. Financiers Behind Amazon Destruction at NYC Climate Week
Indigenous Amazonian delegates from across the Amazon to speak out
Indigenous leaders from the Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon invite you to a press conference during Climate Week NYC 2022. In the context of Climate Week’s theme, Getting It Done, the delegates will discuss ways they are "getting done" protection of the Amazon rainforest.
Vanguard Funds Indigenous Rights Violations in Peru’s Amazon
Asset manager Vanguard must stop investing in Indigenous rights violations and environmental destruction
The Achuar and Wampis have good reason to oppose further oil extraction: The Northern Peruvian Oil Pipeline, which runs through their territories, has repeatedly ruptured, causing countless spills and constant threats to the environment and safety of their communities.
The Voices of Amazonian Peoples Led This Year’s Pan-Amazon Social Forum
The forum strongly condemned the so-called development paradigm, in which governments and large corporations are complicit in destruction with projects that privatize profits and socialize losses over Amazonian peoples and territories.
Sarayaku’s Kawsak Sacha Is What the World Needs Now!
The Kawsak Sacha proposal aims to sustainably preserve and conserve territorial spaces, the material and spiritual relationship established there by native peoples with the living forest and the beings that inhabit it.
Amazonía Against the Clock
A groundbreaking report organized by COICA and Stand.earth with research conducted by RAISG presents new data on deforestation and reaffirms the critical role of Indigenous peoples in protecting 80% of the Amazon by 2025
The Amazon is in the midst of a tipping point crisis as deforestation and high degradation combined have already reached 26% of the region. However, preserving 80% of the Amazon by 2025 is still possible.
Oil in the Peruvian Amazon: Obscene Profits Through Immoral Strategies
Legal attacks against the protections for isolated Indigenous peoples and Peru’s FPIC law are examples of how the oil lobby keeps the current legal framework – the product of years of struggle by Indigenous movements and civil society – under constant siege.
From Local to Global: Peruvian Earth Defenders Confront Deutsche Bank in Germany
Delegation of Indigenous leaders from the Amazon built networks of support and solidarity in the movement against oil expansion in the Amazon
The Wampis and Achuar nations will not permit oil production on Block 64, and they have launched an international campaign to make it clear to anyone who still thinks it might be a good investment to attempt to extract oil from their territories.
The Business Case for Indigenous Rights
Companies must account for Indigenous peoples’ human and land rights to understand and address business and climate risks
Stanford Social Innovation Review | As the effects of climate change worsen and concern grows, financial regulators are turning their attention to how companies report on climate-related risks. One crucial factor that businesses and investors may overlook is Indigenous and tribal peoples’ rights.
Immersed in Crisis, Peru Neglects Amazon’s Destruction
Associated Press | Peru has descended into one of the worst political crises in its history and protection of its Amazon rainforest is failing, according to a report published Thursday.
Peru Commits to Expel Narcotraffickers and Return Indigenous Lands
While attacks continue, the Kakataibo people are reaching new agreements with the government to get their land back
While Peru is in an ongoing political crisis, the Indigenous movement clamors for justice. The demands are clear: prevent the killings of threatened Earth defenders, pursue legal actions against the murderers, and guarantee Indigenous territorial integrity.
Citigroup AGM: Bank Called Out for Amazon Oil Financing
Report shows bank’s role in funding oil companies with ties to corruption, rights violations, pollution, and deforestation in the Amazon. Indigenous leaders, alongside human rights and environmental campaigners, calling for Citigroup to exit Amazon oil and gas.
“Oil drilling in our Amazon has brought contamination, disease, deforestation, destruction of our cultures, and the colonization of our territories. It is an existential threat for us and violates our fundamental rights as Indigenous peoples. We are calling for an end to all new extraction on our lands, and as our ancestors and science now affirm...
2020-2021 Annual Report
It has been a groundbreaking and historic year in our work to protect and defend the Amazon. 2019 saw the devastation of the deforestation fires, which in turn brought a groundswell of support in defense of the Amazon. On the heels of this historic tragedy, and overwhelming support, we increased capacity and responded with renewed vigor in the...
Petroperú’s Ongoing Threat to the Amazon
Intense market and supply chain conditions – due in part to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – have led to increasing inflation around the world, and Peru has been no exception. Today, the controversial Talara oil refinery will be inaugurated and touted by the government as a solution to the current energy crisis. It is not.
Inspiration, Healing, and Resistance from Amazonian Women Defenders!
Executive Director Leila Salazar-López traveled to the Ecuadorian Amazon to show solidarity and amplify Indigenous women’s work against Amazon destruction
On March 6, Indigenous women from across the Ecuadorian Amazon traveled to Puyo for the inauguration event of the Casa de Mujeres Amazónicas, a gathering and healing space for Indigenous women defenders of the Amazon. It is a safe space where women can strategize, create, share, and heal together, including work on programming to support women’s...
Human Rights and Chinese Business Activities in Latin America
New report by the Collective on Chinese Financing and Investments, Human Rights and the Environment examines 26 cases of rights violations perpetrated by Chinese companies and financiers across Latin America, over half of which are in the Amazon
As part of the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council, more than 60 civil society organizations released a new report that evaluates 26 projects backed by Chinese companies and capital across nine Latin American countries. The investigation found a pattern of failure to comply with international standards on human rights and the environment...
New Oil Company Enters Failed Block 64, Again
Achuar and Wampis communities are mobilizing against Petroperú’s intention to exploit the northern Peruvian oil block
If you have followed Amazon Watch’s campaigns over the years, the name Block 64 might ring a bell. Over the course of almost 30 years, the Peruvian government has encouraged a steady parade of international oil companies to explore and exploit the oil concession, located near the border with Ecuador. All have hit a major obstacle: the vehement...
Signs of Hope in the Peruvian Amazon
Amid the onslaught of negative news, we welcome signs of progress. This Tuesday we received word that the confessed trigger-man in the fatal shooting of Indigenous leader Arbildo Meléndez has finally been captured. His widow, Zulema Guevara, has courageously fought for justice in her husband’s case, herself becoming the target of death threats.
2021 Was a Year to Reflect, Reclaim, and Reconnect
2021 was full of highs and lows as we entered our second year in physical isolation from one another. We celebrated 25 years as an organization with our community, in deep solidarity with Indigenous peoples. We reflected on all that we have accomplished together and what challenges remain ahead.
Women Wisdom Keepers and Healers: Ancestral Authorities of Life
Our Amazon Defenders Fund will continue mobilizing direct solidarity funds into the hands of Amazonian women wisdom keepers, healers, and ancestral authorities, who are resisting by practicing reciprocal and holistic interactions with the forest and Earth.
All the Ways You Can Support Amazon Watch
When you make a tax-deductible donation to Amazon Watch, you can count on your contribution being put to work effectively and immediately. As we work to achieve climate justice and a just transition for all, we always center Indigenous voices in the movement.
New Investigation Reveals California Fueling Amazon Rainforest Oil Drilling and Destruction
COSTCO, American Airlines, Amazon.com, FedEx, and other major corporations revealed in chain of custody research
“Oil extraction in our Ecuadorian Amazon has brought pollution, diseases, deforestation, destruction of our cultures, and the colonization of our territories. It is an existential threat to us, and it violates our fundamental rights as Indigenous peoples."
Crude Reality: One U.S. State Consumes Half the Oil from the Amazon Rainforest
As oil companies carve up more of the rainforest, a new study says no place in the world uses more oil from beneath the Amazon than California
NBC News | Waorani leader Nemo Guiquita has been fighting the expansion of oil drilling in her tribe’s ancestral homeland for years. She said her grandmother, Nayuma, was the first Waorani to make contact with the outside world 60 years ago. “The rainforest for us is home,” Guiquita said. “It’s our life, our pharmacy, our everything.”
Linked Fates
How California's oil imports affect the future of the Amazon rainforest
“Oil drilling in our Amazon has brought contamination, disease, deforestation, destruction of our cultures, and the colonization of our territories. It is an existential threat for us and violates our fundamental rights as Indigenous peoples.”
