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    "Guardian" of the Amazon Killed in Brazil by Illegal Loggers

    His death comes as illegal miners, loggers and land grabbers are making more, and bolder, incursions into Indigenous land under the far-right Bolsonaro administration

    The New York Times | The murder is one of a string of losses for Brazil's indigenous communities, as miners and loggers make more and bolder incursions into Indigenous territories and other protected areas. Brazil's far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has said that Brazil's Indigenous reserves should be opened up to commercial exploration.

    November 4, 2019
    568 views
    3 min read

    Indigenous Ecuadorians Too Strong to Be Ignored After Deal to End Protests

    After days of unrest, president agrees to stop austerity package – showing the political force of Ecuador's indigenous groups

    The Guardian | "I believe that peace triumphed," said Patricia Gualinga, from the Amazonian Kichwa community of Sarayaku. "But I feel a knot in my throat about the loss of the lives of indigenous brothers. There is a lot of pain to be healed and the government should be aware of this."

    October 16, 2019
    3,830 views
    4 min read

    Deal Struck in Ecuador to Cancel Austerity Package and End Protests

    The New York Times | Under the agreement, Mr. Moreno pledged to withdraw from an International Monetary Fund-backed program, known as Decree 883, that raised fuel prices, and the Indigenous leaders agreed to call off more protests. The two sides agreed to work together to put in place a new economic policy of government spending cuts and taxes to increase revenues.

    October 13, 2019
    2,513 views
    4 min read

    Brazilian Indigenous Leaders Denounce Bolsonaro Before UN Speech

    Open letter decries "colonialist and ethnocidal policies"

    The Guardian | "Not content with its attacks on indigenous peoples, the Brazilian government now seeks to legitimize its anti-indigenous policies by using an indigenous figure who sympathizes with its radical ideologies."

    September 23, 2019
    4,827 views
    2 min read

    Amazon Watch is building on more than 28 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.

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    The Amazon Is Still on Fire. Conservation Groups Blame Illegal Logging and Criminal Networks.

    "I think it is fundamental that the government sends a signal that illegality is not allowed anymore in the Amazon," one expert said.

    NBC News | Supporting Indigenous people and protecting their rights is another important route toward protecting the environment. "If you look at maps of the Amazon, there are these islands of intact forest and the vast majority of those islands are indigenous territories," said Moira Birss, Finance Program Campaign Director at Amazon Watch.

    September 22, 2019
    815 views
    4 min read

    Amazon Deforestation Is Driven by Criminal Networks, Report Finds

    Criminals threaten and attack government officials, forest defenders and indigenous people, Human Rights Watch finds

    The Guardian | "As long as you have this level of violence, lawlessness and impunity for the crimes committed by these criminal groups it will be impossible for Brazil to rein in deforestation. These criminal networks will attack anyone who stands in their way."

    September 17, 2019
    3,299 views
    3 min read

    Activists Follow the Money Fueling the Amazon Fires

    Protesters around the world are singling out the bad actors profiting off deforestation

    Inequality.org | While the world watches in horror as fires rage on in the Amazon, activists are shining a light on the big businesses destroying what's popularly known as the "lungs of the Earth." On September 5th, people around the globe stood in solidarity with the rainforest's indigenous communities by partaking in the Global Day of Action for the Amazon...

    September 10, 2019
    6,102 views
    4 min read

    "Chaos, Chaos, Chaos": a Journey Through Bolsonaro's Amazon Inferno

    A 2,000-km road and river odyssey in Brazil reveals consensus from all sides: Bolsonaro has ushered in a new age of wrecking

    The Guardian | "If we go on like this, things will get worse and worse," predicted a senior official from Brazil's environmental agency, Ibama, diplomatically blaming the spike in Amazon deforestation during Bolsonaro's first eight months in power on the "political situation" in Brazil.

    September 9, 2019
    2,570 views
    6 min read

    The Amazon Rainforest Was Once a Human Success Story. It Could Be Again

    For millennia, Indigenous practices have enhanced the biodiversity, fertility, and carbon-sucking powers of the most biodiverse region on land

    Vice | Many Indigenous people, and groups that support them, hope that the international focus on the Amazon fires will spur renewed efforts to protect demarcated Indigenous territories. Preserving the Amazon also depends on much stronger enforcement of environmental laws and the implementation of Indigenous land and forestry management on wider scales.

    September 9, 2019
    5,156 views
    8 min read

    Follow the Money to the Amazon

    Who is profiting from the development that led to these fires?

    The Atlantic | This isn't just about one rogue head of state. To get to the underlying forces of much of the world's deforestation, from the lush Amazonian rain forest or the carbon-rich peatlands of Indonesia, you need to follow the money: Who is profiting from the development that led to these fires?

    September 4, 2019
    5,069 views
    6 min read

    Why It's Been So Lucrative to Destroy the Amazon Rainforest

    G7 countries offered $20 million to combat fires in the Amazon. But it’s nowhere near enough to stop the deforestation.

    Vox | The recent alarming fires in the Amazon rainforest raised the perennial concern of how to protect something that has value to the whole world but is contained within the borders of a few countries.

    August 30, 2019
    3,083 views
    10 min read

    The Land Battle Behind the Fires in the Amazon

    The Amazon fires could fuel the decades-long fight that indigenous people have waged for their land

    The Atlantic | "As long as the state doesn't demarcate, we are under threat of invasions and explorations, so demarcation is our minimum legal protection to avoid these things,"says Sônia Guajajara, one of the most well-known indigenous leaders in Brazil.

    August 27, 2019
    1,877 views
    5 min read

    How Beef Demand Is Accelerating the Amazon’s Deforestation and Climate Peril

    Brazil’s cattle ranchers are clear-cutting and burning the rainforest amid a surge in beef exports

    Washington Post | Cattle ranchers in the Brazilian Amazon are aggressively expanding their herds and willing to clear-cut the forest and burn what's left to make way for pastures. As a result, they've become the single biggest driver of the Amazon's deforestation, causing about 80 percent of it.

    August 27, 2019
    2,023 views
    6 min read

    We Are Facing a Global Emergency in the Amazon. Here's What We Can Do.

    CNN | Now that the world is finally paying attention to the Amazon Basin, it's important to also understand that governments and companies around the world are emboldening the Bolsonaro regime's toxic policies when they enter into trade agreements with his government or invest in agribusiness companies operating in the Amazon.

    August 24, 2019
    3,186 views
    4 min read

    Blame Humans for Starting the Amazon Fires, Environmentalists Say

    CNN | "The Amazon is incredibly important for our future, for our ability to stave off the worst of climate change," said Christian Poirier, Amazon Watch Program Director . "This isn't hyperbole. We're looking at untold destruction – not just of the Amazon but for our entire planet."

    August 22, 2019
    2,389 views
    4 min read

    The Amazon Is on Fire and the Smoke Can Be Seen from Space

    The Amazon has been burning for weeks amid increasing deforestation. The intense smoke was detected by NASA and plunged São Paulo into darkness on Monday.

    Vice | Earlier this month, Amazonas (the largest state in Brazil) declared a state of emergency over the rising number of forest fires. Fire season in the Amazon is just beginning – it runs from August through October, with its peak coming in mid-September, and the smoke is already so bad that it can be seen from space.

    August 20, 2019
    5,476 views
    3 min read

    A Trump-Bolsonaro Free-Trade Agreement Is an Apocalyptically Bad Idea

    Op-ed by Andrew Miller of Amazon Watch

    The Hill | Proponents of the U.S. Brazil free trade agreement seem to be operating in an alternative universe, oblivious to or willfully ignorant of the environmental and social realities playing themselves out in Brazil.

    August 9, 2019
    4,999 views
    3 min read

    Amazon Gold Miners Invade Indigenous Village in Brazil After Its Leader Is Killed

    Brazil's police have been urged to investigate a “very tense situation” in Amapá state

    The Guardian | Kureni Waiãpi said Brazil's far-right president Jair Bolsonaro had encouraged invasions like this. “It is because he, the president, is threatening the indigenous peoples of Brazil,” he said.

    July 28, 2019
    4,553 views
    3 min read

    Amazon Infrastructure Puts 68% of Indigenous Lands at Risk

    Mongabay | 68 percent of the indigenous lands and protected natural areas in the nine nations encompassing the Amazon region are under pressure from roads, mining, dams, oil drilling, forest fires and deforestation, according to a new report.

    June 28, 2019
    6,258 views
    6 min read

    Indigenous Tribe Halts Oil Drilling in Amazon – for Now

    WhoWhatWhy | "The Achuar and the Wampis communities have an opportunity now to convince GeoPark that this project is fatally flawed, before the company attempts to push it forward and exacerbates socio-environmental conflicts in the rainforest."

    June 27, 2019
    1,165 views
    3 min read

    For the Achuar, Life Comes Before Oil

    Two million acres of Achuar land is threatened by Geopark’s imminent exploitation of Block 64

    Intercontinental Cry | "This is not the first time a company has tried to come into our territories – coming in with trickery – but the response has always been the same over four decades: we don't want oil."

    May 27, 2019
    3,722 views
    9 min read

    Amazon Deforestation Up 20% in Past Year, Environmental Watchdog Says

    Analysts blame uncontrolled logging and land invasion as Brazilian president questions climate change

    Associated Press | Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his environment minister have questioned the reality of climate change and spoken in favor of expanding mining and industrial farming, including in the Amazon and protected areas.

    May 27, 2019
    4,870 views
    2 min read

    Wall Street’s Sustainable Darling Is Profiting from Climate Change

    The world's largest asset manager, BlackRock, has millions of dollars invested in fossil fuels despite claiming to be a steward of the environment

    Vice | "It is time that BlackRock stops financing, sheltering and shielding destructive investments that threaten people and the planet," said Alfred Brownell, a Liberian activist who recently won this year's Goldman environmental prize.

    May 24, 2019
    5,765 views
    5 min read