Mongabay | A decisive battle is just beginning for Indigenous peoples and ecologists who have been watching helplessly as state-owned oil company Petroamazonas settles into Yasuní National Park, one of the world's most biodiverse areas, to take advantage of its oil reserves.
"If the intent to attack and threaten me was to instill fear to paralyze me, it failed. Following this incident, I am more motivated than ever to stand strong and work to defend the rights and territories of Sarayaku and all of the Amazon threatened by extraction," said Patricia Gualinga in reference to the recent attack.
"While the referendum questions on oil drilling in Yasuní and mining extraction are a step in the right direction, they do not go far enough in protecting the Amazon or its peoples from the ravages of extractive industries."
"A healthy future for the planet lies not in short-term profits but in the protection of rights, the environment, and the climate, and in bold investments in renewable energy. It is high time that BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase, and other financial institutions put their money where their mouths are and stop bankrolling the road to climate chaos."
"Drilling in Yasuni directly contradicts Moreno's UN pledge and the expanded protections proposed in the referendum," said Carlos Mazabanda, Ecuador Field Coordinator with Amazon Watch.
"Yasuní is one of the worst places on the plane to be drilling for oil. Particularly in a post-Paris world, in which 2/3 of fossil fuels must be kept in the ground to avoid catastrophic impacts of climate change, countries should be planning for a manage decline of their reserves, not continue expanding production into some of the most pristine...
Gualinga, and the Amazon women leaders, are calling on the Ecuadorian government to investigate the attack, and provide guarantees to protect her and all women indigenous leaders. They also promise not to back down in the face of attempts to intimidate them.
"This is a major victory for Ecuador's indigenous movement and for the global effort to keep fossil fuels in the ground. This sends a compelling signal to international commodities markets that new resource extraction without the consent of indigenous peoples is a clear rights violation and these resources will end up as stranded assets. We call...
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.
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.
In the depths of the Ecuadorian Amazon, on its border with Peru, indigenous communities have been denouncing what they say is an uncontrolled onslaught of illegal logging and hunting.
Extracting crude oil from the western Amazon Basin threatens ecologically- and culturally-sensitive ecosystems critical to global climate stability. California is the largest single importer and processor of this fuel. Therefore, brand-name retailers with significant operations in California have a critical role to play in reducing U.S. demand for...
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.
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.
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...
Last week thousands of indigenous activists and allies traveled to Washington, DC for the Native Nations Rise march, convened by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and grassroots indigenous leaders. It was an important moment to bring the fight against the Dakota Access pipeline to the doorstep of the White House, stating unequivocally that far from...
Just a few weeks ago, I was in deep in the Amazon visiting our indigenous partners the Sápara and the Kichwa of Sarayaku with a small group of Amazon Watch supporters. I am so grateful for this opportunity and want to share some of my reflections with you on why we rise and resist for the Amazon.
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.
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.
Just this past spring, in a move that shocked the international conservation community, Ecuador began trucking the first barrels of crude out of Yasuní. Is this the beginning of the end for one of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems?
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.
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...
"If we can't manage to protect places that are this important,"" says Kevin Koenig, Ecuador program director for Amazon Watch, "then it seems unlikely that we'll be able to protect the rest of the planet. Depending on what happens here, we could be at the beginning of what could turn out to be a very tragic story."
Check out one of the stunning new films recently released about the Amazon and the heroic environmental defenders protecting it and defending us from climate change.
On the occasion of a public compliance hearing at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights today, members of the indigenous Kichwa community in Sarayaku exposed the Ecuadorian State's failure to comply with the 2012 judgement issued by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, using a new interactive digital story-map to demonstrate how the...
We will not let Trump or anyone else stand in our way of defending our climate, our rights, or the Amazon. Join us in calling for an end to Amazon crude and to keep all fossil fuels in the ground to avert climate chaos!
Developed jointly by the pair after experiencing first-hand the pressures faced by indigenous people in the Ecuadorian Amazon during 2015, the project was launched with the primary aim of raising international awareness of some of the key threats currently faced by the Sápara and Kichwa communities of Ecuador, specifically their long-running...
In recent weeks, the first wells inside the Yasuni fields have come into full commercial operation. According to Amazon Watch, the oil from the Yasuni fields is being pumped to California, where it is processed at US refineries.
In spite of their frequent exclusion from the debate, indigenous communities are proposing innovative solutions to the international community regarding environmental protection and climate change.
We look forward to celebrating 30 years of achievements with Indigenous leaders, supporters, and allies. Amplify! will feature a cocktail reception, delicious vegetable-forward dinner, inspiring program with special guests from the Amazon, live entertainment, and after party.
