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    Xingu

    License Revoked for Belo Sun Gold Mine in Victory for Indigenous Rights in Brazil

    "This ruling is a rare instance of justice for the indigenous peoples of the Lower Xingu, who have already suffered immensely after the construction of the Belo Monte mega-dam directly adjacent to their territories. Given the dam's impacts on local peoples and their ecosystem, it is essential that Belo Sun continue to be held to the highest...

    December 7, 2017
    2,516 views
    2 min read

    My First Decade at Amazon Watch

    Over ten years, I have been privileged to play a role in most of the organization's major campaign initiatives. While the moments of exhilaration, frustration, learning, anger, and beauty could fill a book, I want to share ten snapshots of key experiences that represent what serving with Amazon Watch has meant to me.

    October 19, 2017
    1,496 views
    8 min read

    Xingu River Defender Antônia Melo Honored for Her Lifelong Struggle

    "I am but drop of water in the ocean, but together with many others we can shape the force of its waters and make change. This is what motivates my commitment to continue fighting, so that human rights, social-environmental justice, and that life be affirmed for present and future generations!"

    October 11, 2017
    4,860 views
    4 min read

    Brazilian Firm Wants To Build New Dams in Amazon’s Aripuanã Basin

    With the bancada ruralista mining / agribusiness lobby in control of the Temer government and Congress, a Brazilian company, Intertechne Consultores, sees it as an opportune time to revive a shelved plan to build dams in the Amazon’s Aripuanã basin.

    August 14, 2017
    5,714 views
    5 min read

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

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    Brazil Suspends Belo Sun’s Gold Mine Licence, Stock Collapses

    In February, a group of locals who opposed the project asked Pará authorities to suspend the recently issued construction licence for Volta Grande. They oppose the company’s planned use of cyanide during extraction of the precious metal, arguing that waste will be deposited in a dam located just 1.5 km from the Xingu River, a tributary of the...

    April 13, 2017
    5,994 views
    2 min read

    Toxic Mega-Mine Looms Over Belo Monte’s Affected Communities

    On the banks of Brazil's lower Xingu River, a toxic controversy looms large, threatening to heap insult upon the grievous injuries of the nearby Belo Monte hydroelectric dam. Belo Sun would become Brazil's largest open-pit gold mine, straddling the territories of three indigenous peoples and other traditional communities that are already reeling...

    April 3, 2017
    6,394 views
    5 min read

    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.

    March 31, 2017
    3,598 views
    6 min read

    "It Opens the Floodgate"

    "You cannot deny land to indigenous people that are ancestrally attached to it and expect them to continue to exist as a culture," said Christian Poirier, program director at Amazon Watch.

    March 21, 2017
    4,341 views
    5 min read

    Is Chinese Development Finance Enabling Rainforest Destruction in Brazil?

    Brazil's current economic and political shifts and its effort to attract Chinese investment are part of a concerted effort by the Brazilian government to industrialize vast sections of the Amazon, with grave ramifications for the forests, rivers, and peoples who help sustain this irreplaceable biome for the benefit of humanity.

    March 21, 2017
    4,259 views
    5 min read

    Watch Belo Monte Documentary Today!

    Today is International Day of Action for Rivers, and what better way to commemorate it than watching the award-winning documentary film, Belo Monte: After the Flood!

    March 14, 2017
    1,630 views
    2 min read

    Samba Parade Spotlights Threats To Rivers, Forests and Indigenous Rights at Rio’s Carnival

    In a colorful and highly energized samba parade at Rio de Janeiro's world-famous Carnival on Monday morning, Imperatriz Leopoldinense, one of Brazil's most traditional and respected samba schools, paid a special tribute to indigenous peoples of the Amazon's Xingu River, highlighting threats to their territories, livelihoods and rights.

    February 27, 2017
    5,495 views
    4 min read

    Brazil: Hate Speech Threatens the Xingu

    Imperatriz Leopoldinense probably had no idea where it would lead them when they chose to speak out about the Xingu, but they chose the right path. Because today, to defend the Brazilian Indian is to defend the future of our country.

    February 22, 2017
    1,564 views
    4 min read

    Counterintuitive: Global Hydropower Boom Will Add To Climate Change

    "The new study confirms that reservoirs are major emitters of methane, a particularly aggressive greenhouse gas," said Kate Horner, Executive Director of International Rivers, adding that hydropower dams "can no longer be considered a clean and green source of electricity."

    February 14, 2017
    3,512 views
    7 min read

    Indigenous Rights and Territories Under Attack in Brazil

    Make no mistake about it, indigenous rights and territories are under attack in Brazil. We recently reported on attempts by the administration of President Michel Temer to roll back indigenous rights and environmental protections, moves that fundamentally undermine land demarcation norms while portending dire consequences for the Amazon and its...

    February 14, 2017
    5,417 views
    3 min read

    Siemens, the Pope and the Law of the Jungle

    At Belo Monte, the writing is on the wall because, all over the Amazon, new dams are planned or being built. A key role in the protection of the forests, rivers and animals will now be played by the indigenous person.

    February 10, 2017
    1,190 views
    11 min read

    Brazil Alters Indigenous Land Demarcation Process, Sparking Conflict

    With the issuance of a federal decree in mid-January, Brazil's government announced major changes to the procedure by which it formally demarcates indigenous lands – a move applauded by the ruralistas industrial agriculture lobby and large landowners, but greeted with alarm by indigenous land rights activists.

    February 10, 2017
    4,530 views
    4 min read

    Battle for the Amazon: Tapajós Basin Threatened by Massive Development

    Carlos Fávaro's dream of turning the Tapajós River into "Brazil's Mississippi" is now within the grasp of Brazil's agribusinessmen – with only indigenous people, traditional riverine communities, environmentalists and the ever-increasing concern of climate scientists about the damage that will be done to the forest, and thus indirectly...

    January 4, 2017
    1,526 views
    8 min read

    Temer Government Set To Overthrow Brazil’s Environmental Agenda

    Brazil's conservative National Congress has rushed to pass a wave of legislative initiatives, which taken all together, would dismantle much of the nation's body of law protecting the environment and indigenous people – an effort likely to escalate in 2017.

    December 22, 2016
    3,617 views
    12 min read

    Top Scientists: Amazon’s Tapajós Dam Complex "a Crisis in the Making"

    Brazil is forging ahead with plans to build a vast hydropower dam complex in the heart of the Amazon that would convert the now remote and wild Tapajós river system into a tamed industrial waterway for the purpose of transporting soybeans – development that scientists and NGOs say will threaten Amazonian biodiversity, ecosystems, traditional...

    December 13, 2016
    2,697 views
    16 min read

    Brazil’s Dispossessed: Belo Monte Dam Ruinous for Indigenous Cultures

    Hydropower is often touted as a climate-friendly source of energy, and Brazil has the potential to be one of the world’s greatest producers. Yet the human consequences of damming rivers have proven devastating. A prime example is seen in the charge of ethnocide lodged against the parties responsible for building the Belo Monte Dam.

    December 9, 2016
    5,411 views
    13 min read

    Victories by Brazil’s Indigenous Movement Demonstrate Ways To Resist Authoritarianism

    From North to South America and around the world, the ascendency of authoritarian leaders portends dangerous days ahead. Yet at the same time, remarkable stories continue to emerge of determined resistance to these brutal regressions, led by the continent's indigenous peoples from the Amazon to Standing Rock.

    November 18, 2016
    2,373 views
    3 min read

    Belo Monte: After the Flood

    Belo Monte: After the Flood is a documentary exploring the effects of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam on the environment and peoples of the Brazilian city of Altamira and the Xingu River basin, a tributary to the Amazon River.

    October 25, 2016
    3,977 views
    2 min read

    Amazon Watch 20th Anniversary Gala

    Thank you to all our friends and supporters who joined us at our 20th Anniversary Gala on Wednesday in San Francisco, where we shared food, music, dancing, and inspiring words about our last 20 years and our vision for the years to come supporting indigenous peoples and protecting the Amazon.

    October 7, 2016
    5,694 views
    1 min read

    Brazil’s New Government Needs Economic Growth and May Sacrifice the Amazon To Get It

    The impeachment of former president Dilma Rousseff, coup or not, represents a fundamental realigning of modern Brazil. For some in the country, the crisis is an opportunity. These politicians and businessmen are now exploiting the upheaval to roll-back environmental laws and get their hands on the vast natural resources found in protected regions...

    September 7, 2016
    4,385 views
    3 min read