Reuters | Indigenous leaders are calling for help to stop oil companies drilling in the headwaters of the Amazon river in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, warning that encroaching on their homelands would destroy a bulwark against climate change.
CalMatters | The central theory of the Tropical Forest Standard has been proven false time and time again, first with the Kyoto Protocol, then with numerous public and private programs known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, or REDD+.
ProPublica | The desperate hunger for carbon credit plans appears to have blinded many of their advocates to the mounting pile of evidence that they haven't – and won't – deliver the climate benefit they promise.
We cannot simply offset our way to a climate stable world. We need real climate action that addresses the primary cause of climate change: fossil fuel extraction and commodity-driven deforestation, and calls for climate justice.
"TFS could allow oil refiners, which are purchasing oil from Ecuador to turn around and buy offset credits from the same regions in Ecuador that have been devastated by oil drilling," said Zoe Cina-Sklar of advocacy group Amazon Watch. Instead of carbon trading, California should curb Amazon crude imports and take immediate measures to wean itself...
Not only do offset programs allow continued pollution, but these particular forest protection schemes have a poor track record of actually protecting forests and often lead to the displacement of indigenous peoples who have stewarded their lands for millennia. Plus, offset schemes hurt the communities – predominantly people of color and indigenous...
An alarming new study has shown that the world's forests are not only disappearing rapidly, but that areas of "core forest" – remote interior areas critical for disturbance-sensitive wildlife and ecological processes – are vanishing even faster.
Last month in direct violation of its own laws on "free, prior, and informed consultation" Ecuadorian government officials and oil company technicians entered oil blocks 74 and 75 in the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon, without informing many of the communities whose ancestral territory the blocks overlap, in what appears to be part of a plan to...
VICE News | "As with road projects, railways open access to previously remote regions, bringing a flow of migrant workers inevitably followed by deforestation mafias and cattle ranchers, creating a perfect storm of pressures upon the forest and forest peoples," said Christian Poirier, Brazil-Europe Advocacy Director of Amazon Watch.
The Independent | "This proposed bill ignores the international commitments made by Brazil to guarantee the rights to participation of indigenous populations in the decision-making process related to the exploitation of the natural resources on the areas they traditionally occupy," said Maira Irigaray, Brazil coordinator for Amazon Watch. "In this sense, this bill...
Recently, questions have arisen about how Amazon Watch works to stop deforestation, and we'd like to take a moment to clarify our strategic approach to this vast problem and acknowledge that our programmatic strategy indeed addresses the heart of this issue.
The Guardian | Over the last few months – as Peru helped guide the United Nations climate negotiations – five separate oil spills along a main oil pipeline through the Amazon have spewed thick black clots of crude across jungle and swamp and carpeted local fishing lagoons with dead fish.
The Guardian | From the Amazon to the Andes, thousands of activists marched through the streets of Lima on Wednesday to demand a just solution to climate change. The march through the traffic-choked streets put a human face on the United Nations climate negotiations, a process largely confined to suited bureaucrats working behind the high walls of a military...
The Guardian | "[REDD gives] permits to pollute," Smithie told the Tribunal. "[It means] forests of the world acting as a sponge for northern industrial countries' pollution. They can pollute if they grab forests in the global south."
Though Socio Bosque has seen rapid growth in participation and amount of protected land since 2008, many concerns have been raised regarding the implementation of the current program and its future incorporation within a United Nations Convention on Climate Change REDD mechanism.
World Bulletin | The Public Prosecutor in Pará state, which accounts for a large area of Amazon rainforest, tells the Anadolu Agency that deforestation has been reduced to zero in areas where an operation targeting key business figures behind illegal logging netted critical arrests.
Al Jazeera | The rate of destruction blighting the world's largest rain forest spiked by nearly a third last year, according to new data released by the Brazilian government.
Motherboard | A new study by the World Resources Institute and Rights and Resources Initiative has concluded that f you put the woods in the care of people who know them the most intimately – the local communities and indigenous peoples who inhabit them – the woods will be safe.
RTCC | Indigenous communities in Brazil may be the solution for preserving the Amazon rainforests and avoiding climate change, according to a new report.
The Wall Street Journal | "We are not against all investments, that would be absurd," said Roberto Espinoza, an adviser to Peru's biggest indigenous organization, Aidesep. "We only ask that the law is respected, and the law says communities should be consulted...and have the right to determine their own development."
COP20 is an event that confronts the largest challenge and tragedy of all time: What to do in order to not pass 2 degrees of catastrophic warming? What to do to keep alive the Amazon forest, of which Peru has the second largest extension? We have an unrepeatable opportunity to achieve decisive changes in Peru and the world in favor of continuity...
Alianza Arkana Blog | Peru was selected to host COP 20, and yet its Minister of Energy and Mines announced a new law that would potentially eliminate submission and approval of Environmental Impact Assessments for oil and gas companies.
The Guardian | The report features several case studies, including one on the growing "roll call of people killed for their land rights activism" and another on Peru where land conflicts are described as "reaching a crisis" and threatening to "undermine [the country's] status as an honest broker" as the host of the UN climate talks in December this year.
We know indigenous peoples are important stewards of the environment. But specifically how do they protect their territory? Watch a presentation by Amazon Watch's Andrew Miller on specific struggles in Peru, Brazil, and Ecuador.
GlobalPost | The Amazon rainforest is best known for its vibrant wildlife and endless canopy. But it also plays a key role in the world's climate. But the world's largest rainforest is now in trouble.
The New York Times | In recent years, Peru has passed laws to crack down on illegal logging, as required by a 2007 free trade agreement with the United States. But large quantities of timber, including increasingly rare types like mahogany, continue to flow out, much of it ultimately heading to the United States for products like hardwood flooring and decking sold by...
New York, NY – Unlikely partnerships, meaningful policy, reaching beyond the choir, gender equality and a commitment to bold action were all on the agenda as 100+ women from around the world gathered in New York for three days of dialogue and deliberation at the International Women’s Earth and Climate Summit.
Mongabay.com | Data released by the Brazilian government Friday confirms an increase in Amazon forest loss. INPE's data shows that deforestation is pacing 14 percent higher than last year, when forest loss was the lowest since annual record-keeping began in the late 1980s.
National Geographic | Illicit practices are believed to account for three-fourths of the annual Peruvian timber harvest. Despite a crackdown on mahogany logging that began five years ago and a sharp decline in production, much of the timber reaching markets in the industrialized world is reported to be of illegal origin. Most of those exports have gone to the U.S. but...
