“We don’t want oil drilling in our lands,” said Manari Ushigua, one of the most well-known leaders of Ecuador’s tiny Zapara tribe. “Our culture is at risk of disappearing; so is our language and our way of relating to the rainforest.”
They tried talks. They tried letters. They tried protests. But nothing could stop the deal. Ecuador's government sold oil exploration rights in a remote corner of the Amazon rainforest to a consortium of Chinese state-owned oil companies this week, despite dogged resistance from indigenous groups in the South American country who fear they could...
Quito, Ecuador – The Ecuadorian government has announced imminent plans to sign contracts for two controversial Amazonian oil blocks which are facing adamant opposition from local indigenous people residing within the roughly half-a-million acre concessions and beyond.
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...
In May, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang visited South America and indigenous leaders from the Ecuadorian Amazon urged him not to drill for oil in their territory. In 2013, Li promised to use an "iron fist" to punish companies that destroy the environment. Support indigenous communities, ask Li to live up to his promise and to cancel China's...
The Guardian | "We don't accept, and we will not accept, the exploitation of oil in our territories because our vision of the world, our ideas about development, has no place for it," said Manari Ushiga, an indigenous Sapara leader from the Amazon in Ecuador. "It would be better if the Chinese company gave up on these lots. We are not going to accept the end of...
Ecuador's President Correa was well-rewarded for his trip last week to China, but this could have grave impacts for the Amazon and the people who live there.
Earlier this month, the world's eyes were on Lima as 196 nations debated what to do about climate change at the UN COP20 climate summit. While world leaders debated, negotiated, signed and didn't sign agreements, Amazon Watch and our allies sounded the alarm on the critical importance of the Amazon rainforest and indigenous ancestral territories...
On Tuesday night the world's two biggest polluters – the US and China – announced a surprisingly ambitious climate deal. We should take a moment to celebrate this interim victory while realizing that it does not go nearly far enough in addressing climate change. Now it is our collective, global responsibility to ensure that both...
Washington Post | Felipe Jacome's set of photos Amazon: Guardians of Life documents the struggles of indigenous women defending the Ecuadoran Amazon through portraits combined with the powerful written testimonies.
Thank you to all who joined Amazon Watch at our 9th Annual Luncheon in San Francisco yesterday – we were absolutely blown away by a packed house and all your support, ideas, inspiration and love. The event was a huge success thanks to the hundreds of friends who came to join us in person and or live online. What an incredible community we've...
This past week a small group made big waves in New York City. Amazonian indigenous spokespeople and social movement leaders joined the Indigenous Bloc in leading more than 400,000 others at the People's Climate March. Amazon Watch joined front-line indigenous communities and representatives in demanding that humanity keep the oil in the ground as...
A selection of photos from Amazon Women on the Frontlines of Climate Change, a traveling photography exhibit with written and live testimonies from indigenous women leading solutions on the frontlines of the Amazon as the region confronts the impacts of climate change.
Over 310,000 people filled the streets of New York City to participate in the largest climate march in history. Amazon Watch accompanied indigenous leaders from the Ecuadorian rainforest and marched with thousands of others calling globally to Keep the Oil in the Ground in the Amazon.
New York, NY – As tens of thousands of people flood the city to participate in the People’s Climate March, a coalition of indigenous peoples from around the world will converge in a reserved area of south-west Central Park to speak out about the seriousness of climate change and the impacts of fossil fuels and oil related developments in...
Amazonian indigenous peoples and grassroots social movements are leading the call to develop real solutions to climate change, including the imperative to leave two-thirds of known fossil fuel reserves in the ground, starting with the Amazon. A delegation of indigenous and grassroots leaders from Ecuador are traveling to New York City to...
The Zápara were once one of the largest indigenous groups in the Ecuadorian Amazon. But by the 1980s anthropologists deemed them extinct, an entire culture erased in less than a century by disease, violence, persecution and assimilation.
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