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Ecuador Declares Temporary Moratorium on New Oil and Mining Concessions

Ecuador’s Indigenous movement and the government of Guillermo Lasso have agreed to a temporary moratorium on all new oil and mining concessions. This major development puts the country’s plans to double oil production and significantly boost mining investment in question.

Vanguard Funds Indigenous Rights Violations in Peru’s Amazon

Asset manager Vanguard must stop investing in Indigenous rights violations and environmental destruction

The Achuar and Wampis have good reason to oppose further oil extraction: The Northern Peruvian Oil Pipeline, which runs through their territories, has repeatedly ruptured, causing countless spills and constant threats to the environment and safety of their communities.

Sarayaku’s Kawsak Sacha Is What the World Needs Now!

The Kawsak Sacha proposal aims to sustainably preserve and conserve territorial spaces, the material and spiritual relationship established there by native peoples with the living forest and the beings that inhabit it.

Oil in the Peruvian Amazon: Obscene Profits Through Immoral Strategies

Legal attacks against the protections for isolated Indigenous peoples and Peru’s FPIC law are examples of how the oil lobby keeps the current legal framework – the product of years of struggle by Indigenous movements and civil society – under constant siege.

Amazon Watch is building on more than 25 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.

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Set Ablaze Again, the Amazon Cannot Survive Another Bolsonaro Term

Since 2019, the Brazilian Amazon has seen record-breaking levels of fires and destruction. Under the Bolsonaro administration, the levels of destruction have skyrocketed and continue to worsen each year as his rhetoric and policies encourage land grabbing, destruction, and violence against Indigenous peoples. This crisis is not only a threat to...

Indigenous Lawyer from the Brazilian Amazon Builds Solidarity and Support in DC

Following increased violence and the murders of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira in Brazil, attorney Eliesio Marubo travels to the U.S. to demand justice

“The problems in our region are not new but the violence has escalated to unprecedented levels because under Bolsonaro, illegal operations have gone unpunished.”

From Local to Global: Peruvian Earth Defenders Confront Deutsche Bank in Germany

Delegation of Indigenous leaders from the Amazon built networks of support and solidarity in the movement against oil expansion in the Amazon

The Wampis and Achuar nations will not permit oil production on Block 64, and they have launched an international campaign to make it clear to anyone who still thinks it might be a good investment to attempt to extract oil from their territories.

Is Vanguard Sinking the Climate Ship?

Asset manager Vanguard is a major investor in some of the mining and oil companies that are causing irreparable harm to the Amazon rainforest and to Indigenous peoples. Vanguard is not only financing destruction and rights violations in the Amazon, but it is financing climate catastrophe throughout the world.

“Coloring” Brazil’s Indigenous Movement

Indigenous LGBTQ+ community in Brazil claims their space at this year’s Free Land Camp

Visibility as a means towards empowerment. That is one of the goals that the Indigenous LGBTQ+ movement in Brazil strives for as they brought their agenda to the center stage of the Free Land Camp this year.

Ecuadorian Indigenous Movement Secures Victories, Ending National Strike

Indigenous leaders and the Ecuadorian government reached an agreement including a repeal of Executive Decree 95 on oil and gas and reform of decree 151 affecting the mining sector, among other demands. Both decrees had authorized the government to expand the extractive frontier into Indigenous territories and important conservation and forest...

Indigenous Peoples Refuse to Be Ignored

The Amazon and Indigenous rights were amplified, not ignored, at the Summit of the Americas

"Oil drilling in our Amazon has brought contamination, disease, deforestation, destruction of our cultures, and the colonization of our territories. It is an existential threat for us and violates our fundamental rights as Indigenous peoples."

The Anti-Chevron Movement Gains New Allies

Activists, workers, and shareholders push company to act on climate and human rights during Annual General Meeting season

Chevron’s reputation as a price gouger, gross polluter, environmental racist, and greedy corporate behemoth with an army of unscrupulous lawyers and greenwashing PR firms grows worse by the day.

Hope and Danger in the Colombian Amazon

Amazon Watch and a high-level diplomatic delegation traveled to southern Colombia in early May to the “Amazon Pearl” to learn about and support local struggles against armed groups and extractive industries

The vision for the Amazon Pearl, created by the hundreds of families that live there, is beautiful: Live off the land in a sustainable way, while creating a professional future for youth through environmental education.

Illegal Miners Terrorize Brazil’s Yanomami Communities

The Bolsonaro regime stands by despite murder and sexual assault

The Yanomami’s Hutukara Association has declared a humanitarian crisis in the wake of the reported rape and killing of a 12-year-old Yanomami girl by miners, the disappearance of a 3-year-old child, and attacks on the Yanomami’s Aracaçá village that have placed the Amazonian community “on the verge of disappearance” because of violence caused by...

Peru Commits to Expel Narcotraffickers and Return Indigenous Lands

While attacks continue, the Kakataibo people are reaching new agreements with the government to get their land back

While Peru is in an ongoing political crisis, the Indigenous movement clamors for justice. The demands are clear: prevent the killings of threatened Earth defenders, pursue legal actions against the murderers, and guarantee Indigenous territorial integrity.

Four Ways Wall Street’s Annual General Meetings Impact the Amazon

During AGM season, consumers and shareholders can pressure corporations to change policies to respond to the climate and guarantee respect for human rights

We’re in the middle of the AGM season, which means corporations and financial institutions – including many complicit in Amazon destruction – will gather investors to discuss key business strategies and annual performance. Amazon Watch has historically strategized around these meetings to pressure them and demand accountability.

Massive Belo Sun Gold Mine Project Blocked in Brazil

Indigenous and traditional communities celebrate as courts hand big loss to the Canadian mining company

The ruling is the result of sustained efforts by civil society and institutional allies to prevent the installation of Belo Sun's massive gold mine and to seek redress for the illegal acts committed in the course of the project's environmental licensing process.

Steven Donziger Is Finally Free. Onward Toward Justice for the People of Ecuador!

Today, human rights lawyer Steven Donziger woke up free, marking the closure of the latest chapter in Chevron’s scheme to evade justice for its toxic dumping in Ecuador. Now all eyes turn back to the true crime – Chevron’s contamination from 1964-1992 in Ecuador and the company’s efforts to escape accountability.

Annual Indigenous Free Land Camp Occupies Brasília

“The demarcation of lands of all Indigenous peoples in Brazil continues to be our main goal. But to guarantee the demarcation, the protection of our lands, we must also 'Indigenize politics' with the presence of diversity, of women occupying the positions of power and decision-making positions.”

Celebrate Earth Day with Amazon Watch!

This Earth Day is perhaps the most important in human history. If we hope to avert the worst of the climate crisis, we must act now. With the Amazon at a tipping point, we must permanently protect the rainforest and make this moment a turning point for the future of our planet.

Petroperú’s Ongoing Threat to the Amazon

Intense market and supply chain conditions – due in part to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – have led to increasing inflation around the world, and Peru has been no exception. Today, the controversial Talara oil refinery will be inaugurated and touted by the government as a solution to the current energy crisis. It is not.

Protect the Amazon, Protect the Planet!

Last year, the International Energy Agency released the most comprehensive and groundbreaking study yet, outlining requirements to meet the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global warming below 1.5°C. It argued that if we are to meet those goals, there can be no development of new oil and gas fields and no new coal-fired power stations or coal...

Inspiration, Healing, and Resistance from Amazonian Women Defenders!

Executive Director Leila Salazar-López traveled to the Ecuadorian Amazon to show solidarity and amplify Indigenous women’s work against Amazon destruction

On March 6, Indigenous women from across the Ecuadorian Amazon traveled to Puyo for the inauguration event of the Casa de Mujeres Amazónicas, a gathering and healing space for Indigenous women defenders of the Amazon. It is a safe space where women can strategize, create, share, and heal together, including work on programming to support women’s...

Indigenous Communities Need Your Solidarity as Destructive Mining Bill Advances

Despite massive opposition, politicians in Brazil approved expediting a bill that could lead to the loss of over 16 million hectares of forests and cause irreversible destruction to Indigenous territories

Indigenous peoples have repeatedly mobilized to oppose Bill 191/2020, and polls show that 86% of Brazil’s public is against mining on Indigenous lands. The Munduruku refer to it as "the project of death that is dividing our people and bringing violence [against those who] fight to defend our land."

Justice Served in Ecuador!

Earth defenders win amnesty from unfair charges

“We have not committed any crime, we are defending our territory, the natural resources of all Ecuadorians. We guarantee food sovereignty, the protection of land and water”

What Are Carbon Offset Markets Selling? Not Solutions to Amazon Destruction

The world’s most notorious corporate greenwashers are once again targeting the rainforest to avoid actually reducing emissions

Corporate polluters have used offsets as an excuse to keep emitting, but there’s little evidence that offsets are actually slowing climate change. What’s more, offset programs have enabled land-grabbing and violations of Indigenous rights in the Amazon.

U.S. Financial Institutions Are Complicit in the Destruction of the Amazon

New report exposes how mining companies and international investors drive Indigenous rights violations and threaten the future of the Amazon rainforest

“There must be a general understanding that Indigenous lands, traditional territories, and protected areas in the Amazon are not available for mineral exploration, nor should they be, both because there must be respect for our constitutional right to self-determination as Indigenous peoples over our territories, and because of our lands’...

New Oil Company Enters Failed Block 64, Again

Achuar and Wampis communities are mobilizing against Petroperú’s intention to exploit the northern Peruvian oil block

If you have followed Amazon Watch’s campaigns over the years, the name Block 64 might ring a bell. Over the course of almost 30 years, the Peruvian government has encouraged a steady parade of international oil companies to explore and exploit the oil concession, located near the border with Ecuador. All have hit a major obstacle: the vehement...

Belo Sun Brings More Destruction to the Volta Grande do Xingu

Despite the Belo Monte dam's devastating legacy, communities are now forced to resist against industrial gold mining in their territory

The Volta Grande do Xingu is under imminent threat. Local communities and organized civil society have been responding to these aggressive attempts to hand over agrarian reform land to international mining company Belo Sun.

Signs of Hope in the Peruvian Amazon

Amid the onslaught of negative news, we welcome signs of progress. This Tuesday we received word that the confessed trigger-man in the fatal shooting of Indigenous leader Arbildo Meléndez has finally been captured. His widow, Zulema Guevara, has courageously fought for justice in her husband’s case, herself becoming the target of death threats.

2021 Was a Year to Reflect, Reclaim, and Reconnect

2021 was full of highs and lows as we entered our second year in physical isolation from one another. We celebrated 25 years as an organization with our community, in deep solidarity with Indigenous peoples. We reflected on all that we have accomplished together and what challenges remain ahead.

Women Wisdom Keepers and Healers: Ancestral Authorities of Life

Our Amazon Defenders Fund will continue mobilizing direct solidarity funds into the hands of Amazonian women wisdom keepers, healers, and ancestral authorities, who are resisting by practicing reciprocal and holistic interactions with the forest and Earth.

All the Ways You Can Support Amazon Watch

When you make a tax-deductible donation to Amazon Watch, you can count on your contribution being put to work effectively and immediately. As we work to achieve climate justice and a just transition for all, we always center Indigenous voices in the movement.

Linked Fates: Ending Amazon Crude Will Benefit Us All

New research shows that California is the world’s largest consumer of oil from the Amazon rainforest. California converts 50% of the Amazon oil exported globally into fuel for airports, corporations such as Amazon.com, trucking fleets such as PepsiCo, and retail gas giants such as COSTCO. This new investigation expands upon our previous research...

We Will Continue to Unite and Organize for the Amazon and Climate Justice, Despite COP26

After two intense weeks in Glasgow for COP26, we are back home reflecting on the outcomes. While the Glasgow Pact does not meet the action needed to address the climate emergency, the civil society presence was truly inspiring. Indigenous peoples, frontline communities, women, and youth attended in full force organizing for climate justice and...

“Alternative Development” in the Peruvian Amazon: Deforestation, Drugs, and Death

Over the last few decades, the Peruvian Amazon has become a hotspot for coca cultivation. Drug traffickers in the region have shown a willingness to destroy the rainforest and kill anyone in the name of profit. Indigenous leaders working to protect their Amazonian communities from land invasions, deforestation, and violence come into the cross...

Isolated Indigenous Peoples Under Threat of Oil Expansion

New access road under construction intends to go deep into Yasuní National Park's "No Go" Zone

In late October, Ecuador’s right-wing president Guillermo Lasso declared a state of emergency, citing rising violent crime. But the surprise move also conveniently suspended civil liberties just as civil society was gearing up to protest his economic and policy proposals seeking to implement neoliberal reforms and a business-friendly environment...

As Donziger Is Jailed for Fighting Chevron, Congress Calls for His Release

Despite this, yesterday was a nightmare for Chevron and a victory for environmental justice

Chevron thought it would get away with its crimes after Kaplan’s 2014 decision. But Donziger didn’t give up and neither did the people of Ecuador. Now they have a rapidly-growing international movement behind them not only calling for Donziger’s freedom but that the executives of Chevron should be on trial for their crimes. This was not Chevron’s...

We’re Ending Amazon Crude

Human rights and environmental NGOs, alongside Indigenous organizations, are calling on all banks to Exit Amazon Oil and Gas immediately

On November 1, climate activists and policy makers from all over the world will be convening at the 26th annual Conference of the Parties (COP) in Glasgow, Scotland to discuss global efforts to address the climate crisis.

Flying Over the Amazon in Flames

In partnership with Brazilian allies – the Climate Observatory and Greenpeace Brazil – Amazon Watch organized a flight over the Amazon rainforest with experts and key journalists to expose fires, deforestation, illegal mining, and cattle ranching in September. This initiative was central to our Amazon Ceasefire campaign and the shocking results of...

What Do You Get for Beating Chevron in Court? A “Two-by-Four Between the Eyes” and Six Months in Jail

Despite the UN’s demand for Donziger’s release, judge gives him the maximum sentence, a chilling message to anyone working to address the climate crisis and resist corporate exploitation

"It is emblematic of the larger trend of silencing activists, many of whom are fighting for the solutions desperately needed to combat the global climate crisis exacerbated by multinational fossil fuel companies. Donziger's fate could have lasting effects on environmental and corporate accountability activists, against whom threats and legal...

Ecuador's New Presidential Administration Opens Doors to Expand Extraction

During his first 100 days in office, Ecuador’s new president, Guillermo Lasso, made it clear that his government’s economic policy will be based on extractivism. According to the new administration, natural resources, such as oil, gas, and minerals, found in Ecuadorian subsoil are "essential," given the economic situation he inherited due to poor...

The Global Week of Action: A Call from Indigenous Peoples

The Amazon has already lost 17 percent of its forest cover and an additional 17 percent of its rainforests have been degraded. If deforestation increases and surpasses the 20-25 percent threshold, this vital ecosystem will reach an irreversible tipping point of ecological collapse. The Amazon rainforest, as we've known it, could dive into the...

“The Struggle of Indigenous Peoples Is a Struggle for the Future of Humanity”

Last week, six thousand Indigenous people of 176 distinct ethnicities from all regions of Brazil set up camp in the heart of Brazil's capital to insist that their existence and voices be recognized and respected by the government. They traveled for days on packed buses, some under the threat of ambushes, to be united for the "Struggle for Life"...

Forests, Fires, and Finance: How Financial Institutions Are Fanning the Flames

We are living in a world on fire. Over the past year, over 1,000 major fires have ravaged the Amazon rainforest, destroying millions of acres. At the same time, the North American west has seen its most destructive wildfire season in recorded history. Unlike the fires across North America and Europe, major fires in the Amazon are typically set...

The Struggle for Life Camp Is a Movement for Our Future

This week, Indigenous peoples from across Brazil are assembling in Brasília for a national demonstration they have named the Struggle for Life Camp. This is the second national Indigenous gathering taking place in the capital of Brazil this year. As they did this past June, Indigenous groups from the five regions of the country will set up camp in...

Stay Connected, Stay Active for the Amazon on the NooWorld App

In solidarity with Indigenous peoples and allies from around the world, we're launching a Global Week of Action for the Amazon from September 5 - 11 via the NooWorld app. NooWorld is a social platform made by activists, for activists to build worldwide solidarity for climate justice. By joining us, you'll gain a community of people who are also...

Fires Rage Over the Amazon and the Entire World. But There Is Still Time to Act!

From the U.S. to Brazil, Siberia to Turkey, Italy to Greece, we're witnessing fires raging across the globe, consuming forests, lives, wildlife, and our future. The combination of extreme heat and prolonged drought have in many regions led to the worst fires in almost a decade and come as the IPCC handed down a landmark report on the escalating...

How Chevron Made #FreeDonziger a Rallying Cry for the End of Oil

The campaign is now a global movement to protect and defend human and environmental rights against polluters

Chevron did not realize that in its persecution of Donziger it would mobilize tens of thousands to demand accountability against its pollution in Ecuador, and around the world. Last Friday, rallies calling for Donziger's immediate release took place in over a dozen cities including, New York, Los Angeles, Richmond, CA, Miami, San Antonio, Seattle...

Countdown to Deadline Glasgow for Our Rainforests and Climate!

Amazon Watch joins Stop the Money Pipeline’s demand to defund climate chaos

The global climate and ecological crises are more alarming than ever. The Amazon rainforest now emits more carbon than it absorbs due to rampant burning and deforestation. As people around the globe suffer through worsening climate catastrophes, financial institutions continue to fund the corporations perpetuating ecological destruction and human...

Munduruku Victory: Sustained Pressure Forces Anglo American to Withdraw Mining Permits

After months of pressure campaigns in solidarity with our partners, British mining company Anglo American finally responded to the demands of Indigenous peoples and took action. It withdrew 27 mining research permits which were slated to overlap Indigenous lands in Brazil, including the Munduruku territory of Sawré Muybu. Now, we need to make sure...

Is Your Bank Using Your Money to Profit from Amazon Destruction?

The Amazon rainforest is at the tipping point – rapidly approaching an ecological point of no return when, if enough deforestation occurs, the forest will no longer be able to sustain itself, triggering a massic dieback of plant and animal species, and deregulating global climate and temperature patterns. We must take immediate action to protect...

Human Rights and Land Rights Defenders Under Threat in Ecuador

"We are not terrorists. We are Ecuadorians. But we don't have peace of mind because we are threatened. No Ecuadorian should be persecuted by foreigners and we are being persecuted by these companies. That is our fear," shared Josefina Tunki. Faced with the emerging threats against human rights and land rights defenders, the Ecuadorian government...

Do You Invest with BlackRock, Vanguard, or State Street? Help Protect the Amazon!

Client investors have a major role to play in ending Amazon destruction

Together, BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard hold $46 billion in debt and equity in oil companies currently operating in the Amazon rainforest. While the prospect of moving the world's largest asset managers to divest from climate destruction may seem daunting, it's not impossible. That's where you come in. Client investors have power.

The Tipping Point Is Here. This Is Our Plan to Make It a Turning Point.

Just a few years ago we thought we had ten years to act on climate change and that the tipping point of the Amazon was at 50% deforestation, but corporations and governments have either been slow to act or failed altogether. The reality is that the climate crisis and the tipping point are here now. We have just a few years – not decades – to turn...

Rise for the Earth!

Indigenous movement mobilizes against Brazilian congressional bills that would legalize land grabbing and expand extractive industries on Indigenous lands

This week, thousands of Indigenous people from over 43 Indigenous nations are marching in Brasilia to call attention to the multiple emergencies they face and the Brazilian government’s complete failure to protect and uphold Indigenous rights. Among their demands is the immediate withdrawal of the anti-Indigenous and anti-environment legislative...

Challenges Ahead for Indigenous Earth Defenders in Peru

With a vaccination rate that is already surpassing 120,000 patients per day, Peru is finally showing glimmers of hope that it will overcome the worst of the pandemic. However, a glance towards the Peruvian Amazon shows a different reality. Recovery from COVID-19 in this biodiverse region will be difficult and Indigenous communities will need...

Investing $46 Billion in Client Money on Amazon Destruction

How the world’s largest asset managers quietly pour billions into oil companies tied to rights abuses

The “Big Three” manage trillions of dollars of investments for individual and institutional investors all over the world, including pension funds and university endowments. Together they control nearly 20 trillion dollars. By investing in oil companies with horrific environmental and human rights records, they are not only flagrantly ignoring...

Mounting Violence by Brazil’s Criminal Miners Endangers Indigenous Leaders

Unchecked environmental destruction and violence are increasing rapidly on the lands of the Munduruku people, whose forests and waterways are being destroyed by illegal miners. At least ten prominent Munduruku leaders have routinely faced death threats for their resistance to this devastating illicit activity and last week brought a new wave of...

The Climate Kids Are Alright: How Nine Girls Beat the Oil Industry in the Ecuadorian Amazon

The world says thanks to Leonela Moncayo, Rosa Valladolid, Skarlett Naranjo, Jamileth Jurado, Denisse Nuñez, Dannya Bravo, Mishell Mora, Jeyner Tejena, and Kerly Herrera

In a major victory for the environment, human rights, and our climate, nine Amazonian girls just put an end to the oil industry's gas flaring in the Ecuadorian Amazon! The practice has been hiding in plain sight across the Amazon rainforest for decades. For years, Amazon Watch has brought attention to flaring as a source of contamination through...

The Chevron-Ecuador Case Is Critical to the Climate Justice Movement

Tomorrow, May 26, will be Chevron's 11th shareholder meeting since the company lost a historic $9.5 billion judgement for deliberately polluting the Ecuadorian Amazon. Since then, many more Ecuadorians have gotten sick and died awaiting justice, as Chevron pulled its assets from Ecuador and waged a retaliatory legal assault. It spent well over a...

Blue-Washing? GeoPark Tries to Launder Its Image Through U.N. Collaboration

Can the United Nations support human rights defenders with one hand, while receiving money from an oil company with the other? An emerging scandal in the Colombian Amazon is forcing the U.N. to deal with the fallout from this contradiction.

"The oil companies are operating in the Amazon anyway, and we can help make sure they abide by human rights standards." Such was the rationale presented by the head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Colombia, Jessica Faieta. The UNDP managed to get itself into quite a pickle and found itself in the uncomfortable position of...

Rest in Power, María Taant

Remembering the Shuar Amazon Women Defender and Protective "Boa" Woman

In our Indigenous worldviews, our grandmothers and grandfathers have taught us that when our people die, they return to the jungle...in other spirits, in other beings. In each encounter with María Taant, a Shuar leader from the Ecuadorian Amazon, she mentioned a boa that protected us. We heard what turned out to be her last song, in which she sang...

Forced to Resist in the Peruvian Amazon

How the War on Drugs placed a target on Indigenous Earth defenders

A year has passed since the assassination of Indigenous Earth Defender Arbildo Meléndez, a leader of the Cacataibo people in the Peruvian Amazon. On Sunday, April 12, 2020, Arbildo went into the rainforest to hunt and never returned with food for his family. The next day his wife, Zulema Guevara, went searching for him and found his body. In...

Indigenous Peoples Fight for Justice a Year After Devastating Oil Spill

Hundreds of Ecuadorian Indigenous people took to the streets of the Amazonian town of Coca yesterday to demand justice for the ongoing impacts of the country's largest oil spill in recent history. Amazon Watch’s team in Ecuador, alongside coalition partners, has been leading advocacy campaigns and maintaining pressure on the government and big...

Frontline Activists from Around the World Escalate Pressure on BlackRock

Over 80 renowned Indigenous and frontline activists organized to demand accountability from the world’s largest investors driving climate chaos

BlackRock’s new announcements recognizing the need to reach near-zero-emissions are a step in the right direction that comes after years of campaigning by Indigenous leaders and civil society organizations, but without clear accountability measures, they remain empty promises.

Indigenous Peoples in Brazil Win Key Victory Against Belo Sun

The Canadian mining company, Belo Sun, experienced a setback in its plans to open a massive gold mine in the Xingu river: it lost authorization to meet with Indigenous communities during the pandemic due to a pressure campaign by Indigenous leaders and human rights organizations. Belo Sun is hardly the first extractive company to put its profit...

Bolsonaro's Disingenuous Charm Offensive

Brazil's government talks about the "sustainable development" of the Amazon while planning the next assault on it

What does Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro – dubbed the "Trump of the Tropics" – do now that Donald Trump no longer occupies the White House? Steadfastly loyal to Trump, Bolsonaro was one of the last heads of state to recognize Joe Biden's victory. Now, Bolsonaro's diplomatic agents have launched a PR campaign in light of this new political...

Happy 25th Birthday, Amazon Watch!

Protecting the rainforest and our climate in solidarity with Indigenous peoples

Amazon Watch is celebrating 25 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin! What started with our founder, Atossa Soltani, confronting Fernando Cardoso, then the president of Brazil, face-to-face on March 11, 1996, is now a powerful organization building upon that legacy and deepening our commitment to...

Women Defenders Unite to Protect the Amazon

Across the Amazon Basin, Indigenous women are uniting and organizing in defense of life, rights, and territories while confronting increasing threats. Amazonian women defenders are on the front lines of defense and response to both the climate and COVID-19 emergencies. This is in addition to leading resistance against extractive industries...

Overt Racism Fuels Chevron’s Big Lie

The two-sides narrative is a lie promoted by an admitted global polluter doing anything it can to change the story

First, let’s acknowledge that it is extremely detrimental to the ongoing effort for justice for the people of Ecuador that the press routinely ignores that Chevron admitted to deliberately dumping over 16 billion gallons of toxic oil-waste into the Amazon as a cost-saving measure over the course of decades while operating under its Texaco brand...

The Right to Live in Peace in the Peruvian Amazon

Zulema, Indigenous leader of the Kakataibo people, seeks justice after the murder of her husband, Apu Arbildo Melendez

Over the last seven years the Indigenous community of Unipacuyacu – inhabited by members of the Kakataibo people within the central region of the Peruvian Amazon – has lost five of their people at the hands of land-grabbers, who are linked to drug networks. This is the price they have paid for not ending their pursuit to secure legal titles for...

Electoral Upheaval Rocks Ecuador, as Indigenous and Environmental Defenders Score Huge Gains

As an organization dedicated to advancing Indigenous rights and protecting the Amazon, we support the calls from our Indigenous partners for any new government to respect the clear mandate of Indigenous peoples for an end to new oil and mining extraction and guarantee their rights to territory, self-determination, and to live in an environment...

Justice for Isac Tembé!

Isac was only 24 years old when he was murdered last Friday by the Brazilian military police

Last Friday, February 12th, Isac Tembé left his home on the Alto Rio Guama Indigenous Territory, in the northeast of the Amazonian state of Pará, to go hunting nearby with a group of friends. He never returned. The young Indigenous leader was murdered; shot point-blank in the chest by a member of Brazil's military police, on his own land.

Ten Years Ago, Ecuadorian Communities Won a Historic $9.5B Victory Against Chevron

Imbalance of power and environmental racism have so far allowed them to escape paying up

February 14, 2011, was a monumental day in the history of environmental justice, corporate accountability, and human rights. This Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of an Ecuadorian court's groundbreaking judgment holding Chevron, one of the world's largest corporations, accountable for deliberate pollution in the Amazon. This civil court victory...

COVID-19 Threatens the Future of the Amazon and Its Peoples

Due to the inaction and discrimination by Amazonian governments, Indigenous peoples have called upon international allies to show solidarity at this critical moment to protect Indigenous rights and lives. They have called on allies – including Amazon Watch – to unite and work together to raise awareness and solidarity funding to ensure medicine...

Banks Are Budging!

Pushing big finance on climate in the year to come

We are only a few weeks into 2021 and today we've announced the inspiring news that European banks that are collectively responsible for financing the trade of over $5.5 billion in Amazon oil to the U.S. from 2009 to 2020 have committed to immediate exclusion measures on the trading of oil from the Amazon Sacred Headwaters of Ecuador! These...

Munduruku Demand That Anglo American Commit to Not Mine on Indigenous Lands

As recently as November 2020, Anglo American had 13 copper prospecting and research permits on Sawré Muybu Indigenous land, which is part of the Munduruku territory

Indigenous lands are protected by the Brazilian Constitution, and current attempts to change this regulatory framework represent a major threat to the rights of Indigenous peoples, to the integrity of their territories – which remain barriers against deforestation and the degradation of Brazilian biomes – and to the ecological and climatic balance...

Together We Stepped Up for the Amazon in 2020!

2020 was defined by fundamental challenges and transformations. We've all had to adapt and create a new way of living and connecting. Most of us could have never imagined that caring for one another would involve so much isolation. It has become commonplace to call these times unprecedented, but Indigenous peoples had already warned us that...

What Do You Get When You Beat Chevron in Court? 500 Days of Home Detention

"As my physical world has shrunk, the online world has expanded by multiples of thousands. And once I get through this, I have no doubt that Chevron will be paying this judgment such that thousands of Indigenous people and rural communities will have a clean environment and thousands of lives will be saved. That's what this is ultimately about."

Resisting Another Record-Breaking Year of Deforestation and Destruction

While Brazilian authorities deny the impact of the criminal arson, Amazon Watch and our allies exposed and challenged the growing fires and deforestation in the Amazon

Over the past year, Bolsonaro's government failed once again to present a plan to curb deforestation and instead further emboldened land grabbers to destroy the rainforest. Evidence points to the greatest loss of trees in the Brazilian Amazon since 2008. The destruction of the Amazon is linked to Indigenous rights violations and conflicts on...

The Shuar Arutam Will Not Be Deterred and Have Already Decided: No Mining!

After voting repeatedly for over 18 years against mining on their territory, the Shuar bring their challenge before the ILO over rights violations

"The mining companies are dividing our organization. They are harassing the leaders of the PSHA who oppose mining projects. For this reason, we are exercising our right to self-determination. We have decided not to allow large-scale mining projects in our territory. We demand that the concessions that have been granted in our territory without our...

Our Voice Is Our Power

Indigenous women in the Amazon have been at the forefront of the fight against climate change and the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, and today we are stepping up into new leadership roles, successfully forcing out extractive industries and companies from our sacred territories.

Amazon Watch Testifies to U.S. Congress on Indigenous Rights in the Amazon

Amazon Watch's Executive Director, Leila Salazar-López, joined allied human rights organizations to testify today to the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on the status of the human rights of Indigenous peoples in the Americas. She spoke specifically to the situation of Indigenous rights in the Amazon Basin.

Manufacturing Consent: Ecuador to Draft New Bill on the Consultation of Indigenous Peoples, Without Consulting Them

"We demand that an FPIC law be put forth in harmony with and respect for our peoples and nations and our ways and time frames for discussion, analysis, and decision-making. We are not going to acquiesce to an illegitimate law written from their desks in Quito," said a CONFENIAE statement. "Since this will be a law regarding the collective rights...