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    Yasuni

    2015 Achievements and Priorities

    It costs only $.03 per acre per year to support Amazon Watch's work with indigenous peoples to protect more than 60 million acres of rainforest from oil development and mega-dams. Please join us!

    February 2015
    4,340 views
    1 min read

    Deep in the Amazon, a Tiny Tribe Is Beating Big Oil

    The people of Sarayaku are a leading force in 21st century indigenous resistance, engaging the western world politically, legally, and philosophically.

    Yes! Magazine | Sarayaku lies in southern Ecuador, where the government is selling drilling rights to a vast swath of indigenous lands – except for Sarayaku. The community has become a beacon of hope to other indigenous groups and to global climate change activists as it mobilizes to stop a new round of oil exploration.

    February 12, 2015
    1,414 views
    11 min read

    CONAIE Headquarters To Be Shut Down

    Indigenous Peoples of Ecuador Request International Support

    The Society Pages | Yesterday, in Quito, Ecuador, hundreds of Indigenous people from around the country, including those from the Amazon, the Sierra and the Coast, gathered outside the offices of CONAIE, in the north of the city, to continue the fight against a government plan to close the organisation's headquarters.

    January 7, 2015
    4,667 views
    6 min read

    People Power for Climate Justice!

    COP20 Lima and a call to action in 2015

    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...

    December 24, 2014
    2,645 views
    8 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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    Indigenous Voices: A Call to Keep the Oil in the Ground

    Huffington Post | I walk a small path, surrounded by an infinite number of trees, plants and the scent of flowers. My lungs fill with pure, fresh air when I take a deep breath. My bare feet touch the ground, damp from yesterday's rain. This is my home. This is where I grew up. This is what I want to share with my children one day.

    December 12, 2014
    2,891 views
    3 min read

    Ecuador's Crackdown on Critics on Full Display as COP20 Climate Conference Begins

    UPDATE: Yasunidos and Climate Caravan arrive in Lima!

    A delegation from the environmental collective Yasunidos finally arrived to Lima, Peru today after a week of harassment and intimidation by Ecuadorian police and military that sought to prevent them from crossing the border to attend the COP20 climate conference, and thrust the Ecuadorian government's continued domestic crackdown on civil society...

    December 5, 2014
    1,891 views
    3 min read

    Latin America Moves Towards Decarbonising the Economy

    IPS | When the advances made towards curbing global warming are analysed in the first 12 days of December in Lima, during the 20th climate conference, Latin America will present some achievements, as well as the many challenges it faces in "decarbonising development".

    November 17, 2014
    1,599 views
    5 min read

    A Rising North for the Amazon

    Growing up in the Amazon, it didn't cross my mind that one day I would be sitting in a Chelsea apartment in New York City writing about the importance of organized civil society movements and demanding that governments take action towards the protection of the only planet that we have.

    October 31, 2014
    3,563 views
    4 min read

    The World We Want and How To Get There

    Join us at Bioneers this weekend!

    We can hardly wait to dream, scheme and celebrate with you at Bioneers 25th Anniversary Summit Conference this weekend! Join us along with our allies in San Rafael, CA on October 17-19th as we discuss "The World We Want & How to Get There" and work to grow the movement for Mother Earth and future generations.

    October 15, 2014
    2,860 views
    2 min read

    Amazon Watch's 9th Annual Luncheon

    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...

    October 9th, 2014
    2,526 views
    1 min read

    Amazon in Focus 2014

    Plus Our Annual Financial Report for 2013

    We stand at a critical moment in history. Amazon Watch is facing this challenge with great resolve and creativity. We are a powerful community and without you and your support, none of our work would be possible.

    Fall 2014
    3,101 views
    2 min read

    Indigenous Voices Lead Largest Climate March Ever

    Momentum building as indigenous representatives call to Keep the Oil in the Ground at the People's Climate March in New York

    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...

    September 26, 2014
    2,000 views
    3 min read

    Amazon Women on the Frontlines of Climate Change

    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.

    September 23, 2014
    6,184 views
    1 min read

    People's Climate March in New York City

    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.

    September 21, 2014
    3,970 views
    1 min read

    Esperanza Martinez at This Changes Everything talk with Naomi Klein

    The New School | Esperanza Martinez – President of Acción Ecológica, co-founder of Oilwatch, and one of Ecuador's most recognizable and influential environmental leaders – talks about the struggle to save the Yasuní National Park in Ecuador at the This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs The Climate event hosted by Naomi Klein.

    September 18, 2014
    3,664 views
    1 min read

    Ethics Tribunal: Ecuador Violated Rights

    Tribunal marked one-year anniversary of decision to drill Yasuní

    Quito, Ecuador – On Friday the Rights of Nature Ethics Tribunal ruled that in the Ecuadorian government's ongoing push to drill Yasuní-ITT, one of the most biodiverse and culturally sensitive areas on the planet, the state violated several articles of its own constitution.

    August 15, 2014
    2,950 views
    3 min read

    Expelled from Ecuador: One Solar Visionary's Story

    On July 17, Oliver Utne, a U.S. citizen residing in Ecuador with a valid visa, was abruptly questioned, detained, and forced to leave the country after being targeted by Ecuadorian immigration officials. Utne had been living in the country for several years and coordinating an innovative solar canoe project with the Achuar indigenous people.

    July 29, 2014
    5,406 views
    4 min read

    Ecuador Planned Power Plant in Yasuni National Park

    Government appeared to be preparing plans at the same time as pursuing a high-profile scheme not to exploit the oil

    The Guardian | Ecuador's government was moving to install a power plant to exploit oil fields under the iconic Yasuni national park at the same time as pursuing a high-profile international scheme not to exploit the oil, according to government documents seen by the Guardian.

    July 2, 2014
    2,526 views
    5 min read

    Ecuador Breaks Its Amazon Deal

    The green light to drill in one of the world's most biologically significant areas will come at an incalculable cost to Yasuní's biodiversity and the indigenous groups that live there.

    The New York Times | Though the government should be held to account, the stillbirth of Yasuni-ITT is a shared failure. Mr. Correa promises to transition from fossil fuels – after the oil is gone. But that may be too late for an area as ecologically fragile and culturally sensitive as Yasuni.

    June 11, 2014
    5,714 views
    4 min read

    After Government Suppression, Action Continues for Yasuní

    Yesterday – on World Environment Day – the Ecuadorian government organized a rally to back its decision to drill Yasuní. Is the administration trying to give the middle finger to environmentalists and to the planet?

    June 6, 2014
    2,418 views
    3 min read

    Oil Company Has Built "Secret" Road Deep into Yasuní National Park

    The Ecologist | Ecuador's state oil company PetroAmazonas has, in secret, built a road deep into the heart of the world-famous Yasuni National Park in Ecuador's Amazon rainforest, violating promises and threatening uncontacted indigenous tribes.

    June 6, 2014
    4,417 views
    5 min read

    Is This the Ecuador Government's Way of Mocking the UN?

    Huffington Post | There was a reason Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, chose to announce his support for an initiative to forgo exploiting the oil fields under the Yasuní National Park – home to indigenous peoples and one of the most biodiverse places on earth – on 5 June 2007: 5 June, today, is the United Nations' "World Environment Day."

    June 6, 2014
    2,603 views
    3 min read

    Ecuador "Green-lights Environmental Disaster" in Biodiversity Hotspot

    Environment minister authorized environmental permits for oil drilling in Yasuní National Park

    MintPress | In a move condemned as paving the way for an environmental disaster, the environment minister of Ecuador on Thursday authorized permits for oil exploration to begin within the Yasuní National Park, an area home to two indigenous communities living in voluntary isolation and an area some consider the most biodiverse place in the world.

    May 26, 2014
    2,722 views
    2 min read

    Ecuador Signs Permits for Oil Drilling in Amazon's Yasuni National Park

    Companies could start extracting oil underneath key biodiversity reserve on Earth by 2016

    The Guardian | Drilling for oil in a part of the Amazon rainforest considered one of the most biodiverse hotspots on the planet is to go ahead less than a year after Ecuador's president lifted a moratorium on oil drilling there.

    May 23, 2014
    4,023 views
    2 min read

    Out for the Count

    The Economist | "The government couldn't take the risk of having the issue reach the referendum [stage], which it could have lost," says Juan Carlos Donoso, a political scientist. Plenty of activists are furious about being thwarted. The question now is whether they can keep the issue in the public eye.

    May 7, 2014
    760 views
    2 min read

    Ecuadorian Government Seeks to Quash Legitimate Yasuní Referendum

    The people have spoken The world is watching. Let them vote!

    Now that the idea of the Yasuní-ITT initiative is back in the hands of civil society, it may fall victim to an egregious example of government overreach and voter suppression. That's bad for Ecuador and for the world.

    May 5, 2014
    4,889 views
    8 min read