"Like so many big businesses, JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock greenwash their activities rather than apply their resources to real solutions," Leila Salazar-López, executive director of Amazon Watch, told HuffPost in a statement. "Our report exposes their complicity in Amazon destruction, and we know savvy investors will respond...
Shuar
Amazonian Indigenous Peoples Reject Ecuador’s Plans for New Oil Tender
Quito, Ecuador – Representatives of six indigenous nationalities traveled from their Amazonian communities to Quito this morning to reject plans by the new government of Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno to auction off oil blocks that overlap their titled rainforest territories.
Signs of Lasting Trauma in People Evicted to Make Way for Giant Mine in Ecuador
"This development model impacts communities. The mine displaces people, and the impact is direct. It's this industry that makes children lack nutrition."
When Defending the Land Becomes a Crime
"At the end of the day resistance is an ethical struggle. It is a struggle we must take up. Resistance is a principle of justice, especially when we see that the people are suffering."
Ecuadorian Government Refuses To Appear at Hearing on Threat of Extractive Industry to Indigenous Peoples
The absence of government representatives at the hearing doesn’t bode well for such a visit, nor for an improvement in respect for human rights in the country. Hopefully, the new government will soon remember that, as a member of the Organization of American States, it’s not an option but an obligation to participate in the IACHR.
Amazon Watch is building on more than 25 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.
Indigenous Mobilization Results in Steps To End Criminalization in Ecuador
Although this isn't a full victory, it marks a significant step in the right direction toward ending the criminalization of indigenous protest in Ecuador and is a clear demonstration of the power of mass mobilization and international support.
El Pueblo de las Cascadas Amenazado Por la Minería
Este pueblo está enfrentando una gran amenaza ya que el estado ecuatoriano ha concesionado parte de su territorio para la implementación del proyecto de extracción de cobre a cielo abierto a la empresa Explocobres, subsidiaria de la transnacional china CRCC y Tongling.
The People of the Waterfalls Threatened By Mining
The Shuar are facing a great threat given the fact that the Ecuadorian government has sold concessions to part of their territory for an open-pit copper mining project run by the company Explocobres, a subsidiary of the Chinese companies CRCC and Tongling.
Ecuador Election: No Good Option for the Amazon
Regardless of who wins, the response to the escalated social conflicts over extractive industry projects, rollback of indigenous rights, and criminalization of civil society protest will be an early and pressing challenge for the incoming administration.
Amazon Threatened by China-Ecuador Loans for Oil
Meeting contractual loan payments with oil is a major driver behind Ecuador's effort to open up new, pristine Amazon indigenous rainforest territory to oil drilling. All this new drilling has led to massive impacts in the Amazon rainforest that have been dire both for its world-renowned biodiversity and its indigenous peoples.
The Controversy That Could Swing Ecuador’s Election
Indigenous people make up as much as 30 percent of Ecuador's 16.5 million citizens, and their swing to Lasso could be the deciding factor in the run-off elections.
Community-Based Projects Are a Climate Change Solution and Need Our Support
Throughout these years of peaceful resistance and advocating for the Amazon, I have grown to understand that a great way to fight against exploitative oil, gas, and mining development is to support community-based economic initiatives.
Community Consent: Business Lessons from the Amazon
From the snow-covered plains of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe of North Dakota to Shuar rainforest territories in the Ecuadorian Amazon, there is a resurgence of resistance to extractive industry projects around the world. These conflicts have major implications for China, Latin America's largest trading partner, whose state run companies are...
Visiting Indigenous Communities in the Amazon Rainforest with Nahko of Medicine for the People
Nahko has long been connecting his own indigenous roots – he is of Apache descent, as well Puerto Rican, and Filipino and Guam heritage – with indigenous peoples and social movements across North America and beyond wherever the band tours, linking struggles to defend the sacred, protect water, and life.
Musician and Activist Nahko Travels To the Amazon To Build Bridges of Indigenous Solidarity
Nahko, the musician and frontman of Medicine for the People, and his bandmate Patricio Zuñiga Labarca have just returned to the U.S. after a week in Ecuador, where they visited the pristine rainforests of the Ecuadorian Amazon and met with indigenous leaders and communities to hear first hand about local efforts to protect their rights, forests...
Amazon Land Battle Pits Indigenous Villagers Against Might of Ecuador State
Military drones and police helicopters circle above the Shuar indigenous village of El Tink, an Amazonian community in Ecuador where a high-profile dispute against a Chinese copper mine has become a standoff and a siege.
Indigenous Leaders Denounce Ecuadorian Government Over Mining Conflicts
"We are being persecuted by the military and the police who are invading the territories of the Shuar communities," Elvia Dagua, a local indigenous member of CONFENIAE told the media Thursday. "They have destroyed homes. So the Shuar people, women, men, and children have had to flee."
China’s Amazon Footprint Gets Scant Attention in Ecuador’s Election
The impacts of new drilling in the Amazon rainforest have been dire both for its world-renowned biodiversity and its indigenous peoples, many of whom have long rejected controversial drilling plans on their lands.
CONFENIAE on the Raid on Radio Voz de Arutam, Attacks on Freedom of Expression and Militarization in #MoronaSantiago
CONFENIAE'S Governing Council rejects the raid on the community radio Voz de Arutam this morning by more than 100 policemen, who removed equipment from and ransacked the offices of the Interprovincial Federation of Shuar Communities (FICSH).
“Buen Vivir” for Whom?
Despite its professed commitment to protection of Mother Earth and to placing sustainable living over profits, Ecuador under Correa has pursued a resource extraction strategy that prioritizes short-term revenue generation over environmental protection and indigenous territorial rights.
NGO Targeted by Ecuadorian Government for Shutdown To Remain Open
"We believe that justice has been done, and we will continue to work with the same courage and strength to defend the rights of nature and the rights of the people as we have been doing for 30 years," said Alexandra Almeida, the group's president.
Letter from the Shuar Arutam People to the Country and the World
As many of you know, recent days have been very dangerous for our people. These days have not yet ended and are, indeed, probably only the beginning of a great territorial dispute initiated by the National Government against the Shuar Arutam People.
Shuar Tribe Face Government in Amazon Mining Protests
With a 30-day state of exception imposed across the entire Amazonian province of Morona Santiago, the government has reportedly mobilised up to 1,000 military and police personnel to protect the mining camp and hunt down what top officials have called an "illegally armed group" that they say does not represent the Shuar nation.
U.N. Experts Slam Ecuador Over Forced Closure of Land Rights Group
The United Nations criticized the government of Ecuador on Friday for ordering the closure of a land rights advocacy group that supports an indigenous community protesting mining plans in land they claim as their ancestral home.
CONAIE Statement on the Militarization of Shuar Territory and the Detention of Agustín Wachapá
We are grateful for the solidarity of the Ecuadorian people and indigenous peoples' organizations, human rights throughout Latin America and the world, and call on the international community to be alert and vigilant to what happens in Ecuador, especially with our sisters and brothers of Shuar Nationality whose territory, life, and survival are in...
New Witch Hunt in Ecuador Against Indigenous and Environment Defenders
Ecuador became an even more difficult place to be a defender of indigenous rights and the environment in recent days. You would think a country with constitutionally-enshrined protections for Mother Nature would support and encourage indigenous and environmental rights defenders, but sadly that is not the case, and it has implications for the...
Ecuador Moves To Close Leading Environmental Organization as Part of Crackdown on Civil Society
Ecuador's Environment Ministry announced yesterday its intention to shutter Acción Ecológica, the country's leading grassroots environmental organization. The move is a clear reprisal to the group's efforts to raise awareness about environmental and indigenous rights concerns over a planned mega-copper mine on the lands of the Shuar indigenous...
Urgent Statement Regarding the Ecuadorian Government’s Move to Close Acción Ecológica
Acción Ecológica denounces the request made to set in motion an administrative procedure that would dissolve our organization on the grounds that we have deviated from the aims for which we were constituted.
Amazon Watch Statement on Recent Events in Shuar Territory in Nankints
Amazon Watch is concerned about the escalating tensions between the Shuar community of Nankints, the government, and the Chinese mining consortium EXSA (Ecuacorriente and Explorcobres).
