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.
Crude oil imported to the U.S. from the Amazon, most of which gets refined in California, is driving expansion of oil operations into the rainforest, according to a new report.
Today Amazon Watch issued a new call to the consumers and companies in the U.S. and around the world: End Amazon Crude! With the release of a new investigative report, an animated video by long-time ally and Pulitzer Prize winning animator Mark Fiore, an infographic, and a petition to demand that refineries in the U.S. stop sourcing crude from the...
The analysis, done by Amazon Watch, a nonprofit working to protect the rainforest, is the first to document the extent to which Amazon rainforest crude oil is present in the United States. Not only does this oil contribute to local air pollution and global climate change, but the expansion of fossil fuel extraction in the Amazon Basin threatens...
U.S. imports of crude oil from the Amazon are driving the destruction of some of the rainforest ecosystem's most pristine areas and releasing copious amounts of greenhouse gases, according to a new report conducted by environmental group Amazon Watch.
Oakland, CA – A new report entitled From Well to Wheel: The Social, Environmental and Climate Costs of Amazon Crude released Wednesday by Amazon Watch reveals the extent to which U.S. imports of crude oil from the Amazon – most of which are refined in California – help drive the ongoing expansion of oil operations into some of the Amazon...
Unbeknownst to most, oil extraction in the Amazon is not only rampant; it is also expanding rapidly as global supplies dwindle and economic pressures multiply. Even lesser known is the fact that the majority of this rainforest-destroying fossil fuel ends up in gas tanks throughout the United States.
Indigenous leaders from the Ecuadorian Amazon traveled to North Dakota this week to share with the Standing Rock Sioux and the #NoDAPL movement their solidarity and personal experience in successfully defending their sacred sites and water by expelling oil companies from their ancestral rainforest territory.
Ecuador began drilling for oil on Wednesday near an Amazon nature reserve known as Yasuni, a site that President Rafael Correa had previously sought to protect from development and pollution under a pioneering conservation plan.
From deep inside the most biodiverse part of Earth's largest rainforest, there is terrible news: Oil extraction has begun in quite possibly the worst place imaginable.
Tomorrow, Ecuadorian state oil company Petroamazonas will produce the first barrel of commercial crude from the ITT fields that lie beneath Yasuní National Park, an area that some scientists have called the most biodiverse rainforest on Earth.
A delegation of 25 powerful indigenous leaders from around the world will attend the quadrennial IUCN World Conservation Congress (WCC) in Honolulu, Hawai'i, from September 1 to 10. The WCC is the world's largest recurring conservation event attended by government, corporate, nonprofit and academic leaders, among its many influencers.
Ecuador is desperate to drill because it owes China billions as part of loan deals between the two countries that have Ecuador handing over much of its oil to China through 2024. The oil price crash has also exacerbated the issue, forcing Ecuador to deliver twice or three times the amount of crude to pay off the debt. Sound like a bad deal? It is...
Last week, the Ecuadorian government announced that it had begun constructing the first of a planned 276 wells, ten drilling platforms, and multiple related pipelines and production facilities in the ITT oil field, known as Block 43, which overlaps Yasuní National Park in Ecuador's Amazon rainforest.
"By drilling Yasuní-ITT, the Ecuadorian government is threatening to destroy one of the most biodiverse and culturally fragile treasures on the planet for what amounts to about a week of global oil supply," said Amazon Watch's director, Leila Salazar-Lopez.
"In the rainforest, everything is possible. Here are our pharmacies. Here are our libraries. Here is our treasure, our life. Not only for us, for the entire world. So our future generations, your children, your children's children, can live and breathe clean air."
I am filled with hope by the alliance of indigenous Amazonian women who came together in a historic march in defense of the Amazon, Mother Earth and Climate Justice on International Women's Day. It was the first time ever that indigenous Amazonian women from seven nationalities joined forces and marched together in defense of their rights...
Puyo, Ecuador – In recognition of International Women's Day, Indigenous Amazonian women leaders of seven nationalities including: Andoa, Achuar, Kichwa, Shuar, Shiwiar, Sapara and Waorani nationalities and their international allies took action in Puyo, Ecuador, in a forum and march in defense of the Amazon, Mother Earth and for climate justice...
"Women are the main victims [of oil extraction] – their ability to feed their families becomes impaired. There is deterioration of family health and they suffer the division of their communities and other forms of violence," women representatives of the Sapara and Shiwiar Nationalities and the Kichwa Kawsak Sacha and Sarayaku Peoples...
Tomorrow on #InternationalWomensDay hundreds of indigenous women from the Ecuadorian Amazon will march to protect nearly a million acres of their rainforest territory from an oil deal that Ecuador recently signed with Chinese state-owned oil company Andes Petroleum.
The Sápara people and the Kichwa of Sarayaku have denounced the new contracts as a violation of their fundamental rights, and have made clear their intentions to keep resisting extraction and protecting their rainforest.
The Association of Women of the Sapara Indigenous Nation of the Ecuadorian Amazon denounces the government of Ecuador which signed two contracts through the Ministry of Hydrocarbons, represented by the secretary of Hydrocarbons, Ivonne Fabara, and the president of Andes Petroleum Ecuador, Zhao Xinjun.
We, Amazonian indigenous women, representatives of the Sapara and Shiwiar Nationalities, the Kichwa Kawsak Sacha and Sarayaku Peoples, and the communities of the Bobonaza Basin, want to express our deep concern with the contract of exploitation and exploration signed by the Ministry of Hydrocarbons with the company Andes Petroleum for Blocks 79...
Civil society, non-governmental and community organizations representing hundreds of thousands of people from diverse social movements and international networks gathered during the Paris climate negotiations for major actions on the streets, hundreds of events, assemblies, concerts and educational workshops focused on just, community driven...
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.
On Dec. 12th, 195 nations signed the Paris Climate Accord, an agreement to limit CO2 emissions for the first time. In the days following, a debate has raged over whether the accord is a historic, unprecedented deal or whether it's the product of a pro-business climate circus that sold out basic science and principles of justice.
The Amazon rainforest can seem unimaginably vast. Similarly, the fight to defend it from the onslaught of industrial-scale threats like oil drilling, logging, and huge dams can appear overwhelming. But across the region, local indigenous peoples and our work to support them is making the difference and protecting the lands they have known for...
As I reflect on our recent work at COP21 in Paris on the Winter Solstice, I am very proud of what we achieved and filled with great hope for our work ahead. The Amazon Watch team did an incredible job of accompanying and supporting a twelve-person delegation of indigenous leaders, women and youth from the Kichwa community of Sarayaku in the...
I was among the Indigenous People from the Amazon Rainforest who made it to the COP21 climate summit in Paris. I felt it was my duty to be the voice of those who could not attend.
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.
