The Guardian | An oil spill in the Ecuadorean Amazon is flowing downstream towards Peru and Brazil, heightening concerns about the impact of drilling in one of the world's last remaining wildernesses.
Yasuni
Ecuador Oil Spill Casts Shadow Over New Amazonian Drilling Plans
An oil spill from Ecuador's Trans-Andean pipeline last weekend has reached Amazonian tributaries and is wreaking havoc on local communities and ecosystems downstream.
Isolated Amazon Indians Under Pressure in Ecuador
IPS | Quito, Ecuador – Reports of another massacre in an isolated indigenous community in Ecuador's Amazon region cast doubt on the state's compliance with precautionary measures imposed in favour of uncontacted peoples in 2006 by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
A Ruptured Pipe Spilled Oil Upstream of the Amazon River
Smithsonian.com | Ten thousand barrels of oil are now making their way down Ecuador's Coca River – a waterway that eventually feeds into the Amazon River – after a pipe run by the state-owned Petroecuador burst during a landslide.
PetroEcuador Says Biggest Oil Pipeline Cut by Amazon Landslide
Bloomberg | OPEC member Ecuador's biggest crude pipeline was cut today by a landslide in the country's eastern Amazon region. Today's accident is the second time in two months that a landslide has damaged Ecuador's oil pipelines.
Amazon Watch is building on more than 28 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.
Oil Demand Threatens Ecuador's Rainforest
Up to 8 million acres of pristine Ecuadorian rainforest is under threat by a new plan to drill for oil. A local tribe vows to fight to protect their land.
NBC Nightly News | The Wauroni tribes, who live in the forests of Ecuador, are getting ready to challenge the Ecuadorian government’s plan to sell as much as 8 million acres of rainforest for oil drilling, saying they are prepared to fight to the death to protect the land.
Is Chinese Big Oil Going to Destroy Ecuador's Amazon?
VICE | To the world's oil and gas companies, the Amazon rainforest is one huge cash cow just begging to be milked. But anyone who'd rather not rid the world of 30 percent of its animal species would probably argue it's a region that shouldn't be destroyed by rich people.
Ecuador Delays 11th Oil Round Deadline
In a bit of an Earth Day reprieve, Ecuador has extended the deadline for companies to offer bids for the 16 oil blocks up for sale in the country's southeastern Amazon rainforests.
Idle No More Goes Up Against Ecuador's 11th Round
Actress and aboriginal activist Michelle Thrush demanded to know why the Ecuadorian government is "auctioning off over three million hectares of indigenous land in the Amazon without the consent of the people who live there."
Indigenous Leaders meet in Puyo, Ecuador to Oppose the XI Oil Round
"Our territories belong to our ancestors, they belong to our grandparents, first they will have to kill us to operate in our territory," explained delegates from the community of Amazanga.
Increasing Pressures on Yasuní Lead to More Violence in the Amazon
A group of indigenous Waorani warriors has allegedly carried out revenge killings against other indigenous people deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon. This latest spate follows the March 5th deaths of Ompore and Bogueney, an elderly Waorani couple killed by a group of Taromenane in the community of Yarentaro. It is yet unknown exactly how many...
A Tough Sell Indeed
A new report from Analytica Investments warns that the XI Oil Round in Ecuador would threaten "a biodiversity every bit as varied as that of the fabled Yasuní National Park to the North" where one hectare holds more tree species than exist in all of North America.
The 11th Round Oil Auction in Ecuador: A Tough Sell
Analytica Investments Weekly Report | The government and indigenous organizations led by Amazon confederation CONFENIAE continue at loggerheads over the southeast, with the latter bent on derailing the oil round.
Uncontacted Group Kills Two Natives in Ecuador
Reprisals, "forced contact" campaign feared after attack in Yasuní National Park
ScottWallace.com | The victims had sustained previous encounters with the elusive Taromenane, who reportedly conveyed their growing irritation over an influx of outsiders and increased industrial activity in the zone.
Mounting Pressures on Yasuní Lead to Violent Attack in the Amazon
Quito, Ecuador – Amazon Watch reports that based on a statement from the Waorani Nationality Organization of Orellena Province on March 6 two Waorani adults were attacked and killed by members of the Taromenane, one of two Waorani clans that continue to live in voluntary isolation.
XI Round Campaign Launches in Ecuador
La Amazonia que nos Queda
So much attention has focused on the protection of Yasuní National Park, and yet meanwhile an area of unspoiled and highly biodiverse rainforest many times larger is greatly threatened by the XI Oil Round.
Amazon in Focus 2012: Celebrating 15 Years
Plus Annual Financial Reports for 2010-2011
This special 15th year anniversary issue of Amazon in Focus celebrates the hard work and accomplishments of our team, our indigenous partners, and you – our growing network of supporters who now number more than 165,000 and span 137 countries.
Ecuador Asks World to Pay to Keep Yasuni Oil Underground
International climate funds might be one way for the world to convince Ecuador to not pump oil from underneath a biologically rich rainforest region
Scientific American | Ecuador is eyeing the international Green Climate Fund as a way to help pay for its plan to trade oil for forests.
How Far Would You Go To Save It All?
The Understory | That's the tagline for a new documentary being made about the Yasuni national forest in Ecuador, which has been called "Earth's Eden" because of its stunning beauty and incredible biodiversity, and which the oil industry has been all to eager to despoil.
Indigenous Leaders Call for Ecuador Government to Stop Oil Leasing Plans
Indian Country Today | Indigenous leaders from Ecuador's Amazonian lowlands are calling for the government to drop plans to auction 21 leases near the Peruvian border for oil drilling.
Oil Discovery in Ecuador Prompts Plan to Protect Indigenous Territories
Indian Country | Ecuador's Yasuní National Park is one of the richest places on earth, with a wealth of flora and fauna – some found nowhere else on the planet – in its forests, and an estimated 850 million barrels of petroleum beneath them. It is also home to the Tagaeri and Taromenane, tribes that continued to shun contact with the outside world.
Ransom: Rainforest Held Hostage by Oil Interests Unless the World Pays
Financial Times | Time is running out for Yasuní, a world biosphere reserve that sits on top of a fifth of Ecuador's oil reserves.
Amazon in Focus 2011: A Year in the Struggle to Defend the Amazon
A Year in the Struggle to Defend the Amazon
Defending the Amazon is a defining battle of our time and has the potential to shift the balance towards justice, ecological balance and the recognition of our interdependence on nature and living systems. In this year's Amazon in Focus, we share stories from this struggle.
Germany's Withdrawal of Funding Threatens Plan to Save Ecuador Forest
Science Insider | The Ecuadorian government's plan to keep oil in the ground in Yasuni National Park in exchange for compensation from world governments has taken a severe blow in recent days.
Ecuador's Yasuni-ITT Proposal: Precedent and Practicality
Precedent and Practicality
Time is ticking for Yasuni in Ecuador, one of the most bio-diverse forests on the planet. Only a small percentage of the funds have been raised, and Correa has set a December deadline.
Journey to the Amazon, A Forest Worth Fighting For
From the contamination left by Chevron's former operations to the pristine and breathtaking Yasuni National Forest, we witnessed the true human and environmental cost of oil extraction, as well as the beauty that is worth saving.
2011 Delegation to the Ecuadorian Amazon
A journey to the heart of the Ecuadorian rainforest to experience both Chevron's legacy of contamination and the pristine and breathtaking Yasuni National Forest.
Amazon in Focus 2010
In this year’s Amazon in Focus, we are pleased to present to you powerful and insightful articles from our campaigners in the field. The journeys and events that inspired these articles demonstrate the breadth of our work and, at the same time, the depth of our connection to our indigenous partners and the rainforest.
Yasuni-ITT: Oil Change or More of the Same?
The Ishpingo, Tambococha, Tiputini oil fields are Ecuador's largest. According to estimates, they could yield up to 900 million barrels of heavy crude. But in a cruel twist of geologic fate, they happen to lie beneath one of the most biodiverse places on the planet – Yasuni National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
