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...
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...
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...
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...
As nations seek to position themselves as world leaders in the fight against climate change and the transition to renewable energy, some have invested heavily in wind farm construction. China is one of the nations stepping up to act on climate, and in 2020 it added more wind farm capacity than the rest of the world combined. In an ideal scenario...
"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...
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.
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
"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...
We won a couple of battles in the last few days – and for that, we must celebrate – but the struggle to defend the Amazon rainforest and Indigenous peoples' rights continues. As we approach the next burning season in the Brazilian Amazon, we hope that Biden will call for accountability and leverage his new relationships to demand an end to the...
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...
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...
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...
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.
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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.
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
"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."
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 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...
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'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.
"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...
President-elect Joe Biden managed to turn out a significant progressive base to secure the 2020 presidential election. For many voters, his commitments to address environmental and racial justice after several years of actions, protests and calls from activists led to grassroots mobilizations that delivered the presidency and a few flipped states...
Bolsonaro and his henchmen would have us believe that "the Amazon doesn't catch fire," "the Amazon isn't burning," or even that "Africa is burning much more than Brazil." Yet these flimsy arguments cannot withstand the accurate documentation of how this year's heartbreaking burning season has laid waste to Brazilian ecosystems while incinerating...
Bolsonaro and his henchmen would have us believe that "the Amazon doesn't catch fire," "the Amazon isn't burning," or even that "Africa is burning much more than Brazil." Yet these flimsy arguments cannot withstand the accurate documentation of how this year's heartbreaking burning season has laid waste to Brazilian ecosystems while incinerating...
This election in the United States could well be the most consequential of our lifetimes. Racial justice issues are on the ballot. Climate change is on the ballot. The future of the American democratic experiment – as flawed as it has been – is on the ballot. And yes, the Amazon rainforest is also on the ballot.
Our planet is on fire and we cannot breathe. From the criminal arson ravaging the Amazon rainforest for profit to the wildfires raging on the West Coast of the United States due to escalating climate chaos, our planet and communities are under attack. These are not isolated incidents. They are symptoms of broken systems that perpetuate the...
"This 'Strategic Alliance' is not an 'innovative relationship' as Solaris portrays it. It is the same strategy that many mining and oil companies have used to advance their projects, while side-stepping and disrespecting the legitimate and traditional Indigenous organizational structures."
"Today's ruling shows that the Ecuadorian justice system has once again put the interests of oil companies above the rights of Indigenous peoples and nature. The evidence of contamination and the impact on the lives of the Kichwa populations of the Coca and Napo rivers was overwhelming during the hearing. However, the judge, without law or logic...
Despite positioning itself earlier this year as a financial firm that leads on climate, BlackRock continues to be a major financial investor in the deforestation commodity companies currently fueling the fires in the Amazon. BlackRock is a top investor in deforestation-risk commodities around the world, and despite vague commitments to prioritize...
In response to this worsening crisis, Amazon Watch is calling for an #AmazonCeasefire by mounting a communications, advocacy, and direct relief campaign alongside a coalition of Brazilian and global allies. We are shining a spotlight on the true drivers of today's crisis – from political delinquency to market complicity – while also targeting...
One Amazonian nation that has prioritized addressing collective needs in their community during the pandemic has been the Ese Eja. It is now a young nation with a clear political vision, solid organizing, and communal ties. With a direct grant from the ADF, the Ese Eja have equipped their health posts with oxygen concentrators in each of their...
"I wonder if the executives of banks in Europe know the real cost of their financing. How can they possibly sleep peacefully knowing their money leaves thousands of Indigenous peoples and communities without water, without food, and in devastating health conditions due to the pollution of the Coca and Napo rivers? It's time for the banks...
Today, we celebrate a major victory after years of collaboration and hard work to fend off another multinational oil company that was supported by the world's largest investment firms and powerful governments.
We are witnessing the devastating effects of negligent and narcissistic government leadership, as COVID-19 cases continue to explode from the U.S. to the Amazon. Scientists, health experts, and Indigenous peoples are rightfully calling out governments for their failure to prevent the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. In the Amazon, our...
A year ago, the world awoke to one of the worst environmental disasters in a generation, as São Paulo's afternoon sky was plunged into darkness by a dense plume of smoke from fires that raged across the Brazilian Amazon. The devastation of the rainforest was met with unprecedented global concern and media visibility. This year, as our societies...
"We, the Yanomami people, have long been forced to live with the invasion of illegal mining. Miners are contaminating our rivers with mercury, carving out our lands, and killing our animals and our environment. Our health is poor as a result of drinking water contaminated by mining. Right now, they could potentially infect almost half of our...
The United States is in the midst of what some are now calling a "new civil rights movement." During such a groundbreaking historical moment, it is of paramount importance that the environmental and climate movements understand the connection between our work to stop climate chaos and the movement to end systemic racism. This intersectional...
After years of pressure from shareholders and legislators, BlackRock finally seemed ready to acknowledge the climate crisis in January, when it announced it would "place climate at the center of its investment strategy." On the surface, the move seemed to send a clear message that business as usual was over. Yet, it has been far from clear what...
The murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor have catalyzed a seismic and long-overdue shift in support for the Movement for Black Lives and to defund the police. At the same time, the climate justice movement has finally begun to gain momentum because of the increasing recognition that overcoming our environmental crisis requires addressing and...
The U'wa Indigenous Guard, active in the cloud forest of Colombia near the border with Venezuela, were formed to nonviolently defend U'wa territory from a multitude of external threats from extractive companies and unwanted "eco-tourists". In the era of COVID-19 – known to U'wa spiritual elders as "The Demon" – the Guard's mission has expanded to...
When the novel coronavirus first began to emerge as a global pandemic, its spread also carried centuries of collective memories of the diseases that previously decimated Indigenous peoples across the Americas. Indigenous peoples across the Amazon began to ban outsiders from their territories and disperse preventative information and resources in...
Our Indigenous brothers and sisters in Peru remind us that access to oxygen and healthcare must be guaranteed right in a just economic system. Our partners shouldn't have to choose between purchasing oxygen or paying their bills or feeding their families. COVID-19 is showing us the face of the global food and health crisis and demanding literal...
The Wampis Nation, one of the most organized Indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon, is calling out Chile-based oil company GeoPark for putting their communities at risk of the COVID-19 contagion. Leaders of the Wampis Nation have received information that GeoPark community-relations workers are violating Peru's national quarantine by...
Arbildo Meléndez Grandes, leader of the Cacataibo Indigenous community of Unipacuyacu, is the latest Indigenous leader of the Peruvian Amazon to be murdered for defending his Indigenous territory. He was a defender of his community – demanding that the government provide a land title – and had received death threats from land-grabbers and narco...
Ecuador is grappling with a trifecta of tragedy never before seen despite its tumultuous history. The country not only has one of the highest numbers of COVID-19 cases in the world, but it is also facing a pipeline rupture that has contaminated Amazon rivers and historic flooding that has devastated local communities and left hundreds of families...
Impunity cannot be brought to an end solely by increasing indictments and convictions against low-level henchmen. Instead, those who benefit and profit from these acts of violence must also face consequences, including the companies that benefit from illegal land grabbing and Amazon deforestation, like mining, agribusiness and logging.
We must stand together to call for justice for Ecuadorians, because if we do, corporations like Chevron will never win. We know Chevron's ultimate goal is to divide and conquer, but this growing upswell of support from celebrities, Nobel laureates, and international activists affirms that Ecuadorians are not alone in their pursuit for justice.
COVID-19 poses a mortal threat to Amazonian Indigenous peoples. As of April 7th there have already been at least 1,868 cases of the disease in the region and 59 deaths. Those numbers are likely to explode in the coming weeks, and we need to take action now to prevent more deaths.
Encouraged by Bolsonaro's project to open up Indigenous territories for economic exploitation, non-Indigenous people are putting more than 300,000 Indigenous people in the Brazilian Amazon at risk of contracting the novel coronavirus. What's worse is that the deforestation caused by these criminal industries is encroaching upon the territory of...
Over 100 Amazonian women, representing multiple Indigenous nations across Ecuador, came together to march for the dignity of their peoples, to reclaim their songs and wisdom, to re-ignite their fight against extractivism, and to address social inequality and the rampant impunity for those who attack defenders of nature.
As Indigenous peoples prepare for COVID-19, historic storms in the Ecuadorian Amazon have caused rivers to rise and have flooded communities including Sarayaku, Pacayaku, and Teresa Mama on the Bobonaza River. This has led to the collapse of bridges and destruction of homes, schools, and gardens to grow food and medicine.
During this time of COVID-19, we have chosen to limit all travel to prevent the spread of the virus, and also to stay grounded in our work to protect the Amazon, defend the defenders, and demand climate justice. This is an opportunity for all of us to reshift, rethink, and reground ourselves in our work, our community, and our families.
In our newest report, Investing in Amazon Crude, and activist guide, Building People Power to End Investment in Amazon Crude, Amazon Watch details the ways that five of the world's most powerful financial institutions – Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and BlackRock – actively contribute to climate change by providing debt and...
There has never been a more urgent time to support and highlight Indigenous leaders like Congresswomen Wapichana and Haaland, who are the antithesis of Trump and Bolsonaro. The Brazilian president recently delivered a blatantly racist speech in which he stated that Indigenous people, "are becoming human beings just like us."
It shouldn't take a million baby steps for the finance sector to adopt measurable policies that prioritize Indigenous rights and prohibit deforestation and fossil fuel extraction. JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock need to go much further. They need to stand up and make sweeping changes to their policies, now.
Brazil's president once again attempts to erase the Indigenous way of life through his policies and actions. "Is this what we want: to wipe out the Indigenous peoples? Is this Brazil's policy?" asked Brazilian Congresswoman Joênia Wapichana.
In direct response to our campaign demands, BlackRock – the largest asset management company and the largest investor in fossil fuel industries worldwide – publicly committed to "fundamentally reshape finance to deal with climate change."
Various news outlets have noted that both the Australian and Amazon tragedies were related to climate change but failed to describe a key difference between them: the fires in Australia are almost exclusively wildfires, while those that ravaged the Brazilian Amazon were intentionally set by people, primarily for land speculation and agribusiness.
For everyone that hosted a fundraiser, shared our videos and posts, or did something creative to spread awareness and protect the Amazon, thank you. This movement requires all hands on deck. We need to maintain the same sense of urgency in order to protect it and its Indigenous peoples. Onward together!
While the theme of COP25 was "Time for Action", world leaders failed to live up to this motto to address the climate emergency we are all facing. The world is on fire, and while civil society was crying out for emergency action, world leaders turned their heads.
As the Amazon rainforest falls victim to the criminal Bolsonaro regime, forest defenders – from indigenous peoples and traditional communities to local NGOs – are being targeted by an unprecedented wave of violence and intimidation.
"At a time when the world needs to be racing to protect the Amazon, a new oil boom in the headwaters of the mighty Amazon River in Ecuador and Peru puts this area, known as the Amazon Sacred Headwaters, in great peril."
Today the Association of Brazil's Indigenous Peoples published an ad in the Financial Times calling out the worst offenders that finance Amazon destruction and making clear that, “the fate of the Amazon is the fate of the world.”
As the "lungs of the planet" burned and police attacked indigenous women and children, the world rose up to ACT for the Amazon. In immediate response to the crisis, your support provided over 65 emergency grants to fight both physical and political fires across the Amazon, including indigenous firefighters in Brazil and Bolivia, emergency relief...
"We need to point our fingers in the face of our enemies," said Célia Xacriabá outside BlackRock, an institution that is backing industries responsible for this year's devastating forest fires.
For thousands of years, indigenous peoples have protected their sacred ancestral territories. We all must stand with them to protect and restore the bio-cultural integrity of the Amazon, because our collective future depends on it.
La resistencia indígena a la extracción de petróleo en Ecuador obtuvo otra gran victoria esta semana. El éxito se alcanzó luego de un esfuerzo de varios años para detener los planes de perforación de Andes Petroleum en una concesión en el bosque tropical denominado como Bloque 79, que se superpone al territorio titulado de las nacionalidades...
The decision from Ecuador's Energy Ministry comes on the heels of new momentum by the indigenous movement against extraction, attacks against indigenous earth defenders, and a global outcry over the destruction of the Amazon.
BlackRock is a major investor in the industries driving deforestation and indigenous rights violations in the Amazon. That's why, as the Amazon fires crisis escalated through late summer, we joined with allies at Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace USA, and Friends of the Earth US to contact BlackRock directly about the meaningful steps the...
Today, a delegation of Brazilian indigenous leaders begins a historic journey in defense of their peoples' rights and territories. Over the next month, leaders of Brazil's National Indigenous Movement will visit twelve European countries to report on the brutal and escalating violations inflicted upon the country's indigenous community since...
"How can we talk about 'development', when our territories where we've lived for hundreds of years are being exploited, are being auctioned off, turned into new oil concessions. This undeniably affects us!"
"For centuries, we have protected our lands in the mountains and the Amazon, and we will not allow indigenous peoples, indigenous territories, and our global climate to pay the cost for the government's mounting debt to China and international lenders. Once again, we are putting our bodies and our lives on the line to protect our families, rights...
As fires continue to rage in the Amazon rainforest, millions of people have taken to the streets around the world to demand radical, systemic change to the way humanity is handling the climate catastrophe. At New York's Climate Week, indigenous leaders from the Amazon, pro-democracy activists from Brazil, and members of Amazon Watch's team arrived...
"The Chevron’s case rested on the paid testimony of a witness who was paid over $1 million. He admitted to changing his story multiple times, to sweetening his deal with Chevron. That was the star witness for Chevron in this case. I can’t think of any other case that I have worked on that I think is as great a travesty of justice to a particular...
This short video, launched during Climate Week, is an effort to broaden the public's understanding about not only what is happening in the Amazon, but also what we can do about it as a global community. The time has truly never been more pressing, as the Amazon, the "lungs of the Earth," approaches a tipping point. As many more people sign the...
What does the world's largest asset manager have to do with the fires raging in Brazil and other parts of the Amazon? In short: a lot. As the world's biggest money manager, BlackRock plays a key role in deciding where and how the $6.5 trillion in funds they manage are invested.
The current crisis is not the beginning of the assault on the Amazon rainforest and its indigenous guardians, and unfortunately, it will not be the last. Long before Brazil's current far-right government took power, local and global industrial interests set the stage for these fires, and they will not change their behavior unless they are...
Yesterday, demonstrators filled the streets for the Global Day of Action for the Amazon outside of Brazilian embassies and the offices of corporations profiting from Amazon destruction. In more than twenty countries across six continents, thousands of people marched, blocked traffic, displayed art, and held vigils, sit-ins, and other events to...
Bolsonaro’s hate-filled rhetoric aims to set the stage for a coordinated assault on indigenous land rights, as political representatives of Brazil’s powerful agribusiness sector work to open native lands to industrial activities. In this dire context, it is essential that Brazil’s vibrant resistance movement continue to gain strength and momentum.
Today we may be witnessing the tragedy of our lifetime: the Brazilian Amazon is in flames and in peril. Indeed, it's not only the Amazon, but our entire planet that is in crisis as the devastation of this life-giving biome poses a real, existential threat for all of humanity.
Yesterday, nearly 3,000 indigenous women leaders from across Brazil staged a mobilization in the nation’s capital as part of the country’s first Indigenous Women's March. Entitled "Territory: our body, our spirit,” this historic gathering was in response to escalating violations of indigenous rights under the Bolsonaro government, as native...
Last month Amazon Watch visited the Munduruku people in the Amazonian state of Pará, whose nation stretches the vast Tapajós River basin. Our stay in the contested Sawré Muybu territory was illustrative of the spiraling threats faced by indigenous peoples in Bolsonaro’s Brazil.
This spring, we carried out the second install of our Power to the Protectors program in three Kichwa communities in the central Ecuadorian Amazon, all threatened by new oil expansion. The equipment and training provided will be essential tools to support the communities’ ability to monitor their territory, denounce rights violations, and share...
"As the Achuar People, along with the Wampis Nation, we completely reject the entry of GeoPark into our territory. You all are aware of human rights and environmental law, yet you still insist on polluting our lands. Understand that no matter how much you insist on entering our territory, we are never going to allow oil companies to come in."
"It is also extremely concerning to us that Chevron has been able to leverage this apparently paid and largely false witness testimony to target the reputation of Mr. Donziger, who has worked for more than two decades with the affected communities in Ecuador to try to hold Chevron accountable for what is considered one of the worst oil-related...
"The government tried to sell our lands to the oil companies without our permission. Our rainforest is our life. We decide what happens in our lands. We will never sell our rainforest to the oil companies."
"We don't want the oil company to enter our territory because they contaminate everything – the air we breathe, the forest from which we source our food. As our ancestors left our territory to us, we want to leave it for future generations."
Larry Fink's view of real climate action was clear when he dodged hard questions and tried to shift the blame to others. When challenged on the billions in assets that BlackRock owns in the fossil fuel industry driving climate change, he blamed his clients. Yep, really. Some leadership, huh?
Every year, a larger band of human rights and environmental activists show up at the Chevron shareholders meeting to stubbornly speak truth to power. It's essential to do so, as this is the one time that the Chevron CEO, board, and senior management are forced to listen to us.
"The economic project of the Bolsonaro government answers to powerful financial interests, to private corporations, many of them international, including agribusiness and mining interests, among others. Therefore, it is a highly beholden government that is anti-national, predatory, ethnocidal, genocidal and ecocidal."
A match made in Hell? Two individuals with the least regard for the environment and minority rights might be joining forces to "develop" the Amazon. In March, Brazil's new extreme right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro met with his role model Donald Trump at the White House. One of their discussion topics was how to collaborate on the Amazon.
Once a year, the United Nations Headquarters in New York welcomes hundreds of indigenous leaders and representatives from around the world for the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Amazon Watch spent the week accompanying and amplifying the voices and solutions of Amazonian leaders from Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil.
The risk of new oil drilling in Achuar territory is more alarming than it has been since I started with Amazon Watch over twelve years ago. Fortunately, the Achuar are determined to protect their lands and families from contamination and they also benefit from the support of steadfast allies, both Peruvian and international.
Thirty-three of the world's biggest banks have poured a whopping $1.9 trillion into fossil fuels since 2016, and this financing continues to increase every year. That was a key finding of the Banking on Climate Change report, released yesterday by allies including Rainforest Action Network and Indigenous Environmental Network and endorsed by...
Emboldened by the institutional assault upon indigenous rights being waged by the regime of Jair Bolsonaro, rural mafias are organizing an unprecedented wave of land invasions and attacks on native territories and communities. As Brazil's indigenous agency FUNAI is systematically dismantled, with its mandate to title and monitor indigenous lands...
We have eleven years. Eleven years to take bold climate action towards a world not powered by fossil fuels. For our indigenous partners fighting oil and gas extraction on their ancestral territories, there is no time to spare: further expansion of this dirty infrastructure will destroy their land, livelihoods, and way of life.
In the remote, roadless rainforest territories along the border between Ecuador and Peru, over a dozen indigenous nationalities have launched an initiative to permanently protect about 60 million acres from industrial extraction and stop the drivers of deforestation. Dubbed the Amazon Sacred Headwaters, the initiative seeks to present a united...
On Wednesday, we got some incredible news: the CEO of the world's largest investment firm announced he was radically shifting the company's priorities, including moving money out of fossil fuels because they cause climate change and pressuring the companies it owns to align with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. Yet soon our cheers turned...
Despite efforts to curb corruption, President Moreno is following the same oil-stained playbook that helped get Ecuador into a cycle of debt and dependency. He has green-lighted new drilling in Yasuní National Park and plans to open up areas in the country's roadless southern rainforest, still hoping that Ecuador can drill its way to prosperity.
The inauguration of right-wing zealot Jair Bolsonaro to Brazil's presidency ushers in a dangerous era for human rights, environmental safeguards, and the rule of law in the world's fourth-largest democracy.
Last week, Ecuador's Energy Minister, Carlos Pérez García, announced that – at least for now – the government will not pursue oil drilling in the "buffer zone" protected areas of Yasuní National Park, reversing plans revealed last month in a leaked draft decree. This is an important victory for our collective work to keep fossil fuels...
For decades, oil companies have taken advantage of the resource-rich land of the western Amazon, violating the basic human rights of the indigenous people while simultaneously inflicting harm and destroying the beautiful rainforest. Indigenous communities have responded with powerful messages, defending their land at all costs. At the forefront of...
While Ecuadorian government officials were busy touting the country's advances to reduce emissions at COP 24 in Poland, activists gathered outside the country's Environment Ministry to protest government plans to greatly expand oil drilling in its remote Amazon rainforest and indigenous lands. These are fossil fuels the planet can ill afford to...
Not only do offset programs allow continued pollution, but these particular forest protection schemes have a poor track record of actually protecting forests and often lead to the displacement of indigenous peoples who have stewarded their lands for millennia. Plus, offset schemes hurt the communities – predominantly people of color and indigenous...
Día de los Muertos is traditionally a day for remembering and honoring those who have come before us. For those of us committed to environmental justice, that often includes remembering those who have lost their lives resisting the impacts of pollution, deforestation, and land grabbing. In this celebration of resistance, of course we also took...
The extreme right-wing candidate Jair Bolsonaro was elected Brazil's president on Sunday in a victory that hands him a powerful mandate to enact a series of sweeping changes to the country's political, economic, social, and environmental order. His victory represents a profound setback for human rights and ecological preservation in the world's...
Now more than ever, Amazon Watch will redouble its work in solidarity with our embattled partners, from remote communities in the Brazilian Amazon to national organizations. Together, we shall power a resistance movement against the abomination of Jair Bolsonaro, forging solutions in defense of the rainforest's irreplaceable ecosystems and...
Scientists have finally caught up with the lived experience and traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples. As the Florida Panhandle picks up the pieces and North Carolina recovers from its second hurricane in less than a month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued its most dire warning yet.
The Achuar of the Pastaza River provide a different vision than the traditional top-down models of nature conservation, as laid out in the Achuar Life Plan. Put to paper in 2003, the Life Plan outlines the Achuar's own development model which includes a collective title for their ancestral territory, keeping extractive companies and roads out...
Finally, we have some good news to report: Latin American and Caribbean countries are lining up to ratify a new treaty requiring stricter protections for the environment and for Earth Defenders! In recent months Amazon Watch worked to publicize the Agreement's importance and organized our supporters to push for its ratification – a big THANK YOU...
BlackRock, the world's largest investment firm, holds more shares in fossil fuel and other industries that cause climate change than any other company in the world. That means that BlackRock's portfolio constitutes a huge liability for putting the planet on a path towards runaway climate change.
"We are here because 2.5 million acres of our forests are being negotiated behind our backs. Our forests are not just carbon," said Marlon Santi of Sarayaku. "Allowing oil companies to continue to pollute while using the forests we have protected for millennia as carbon sinks without our consent is not a climate solution."
Let's say you're an oil company (because, you know, corporations are people, too). You have plans to drill in the Amazon rainforest. The government encourages you to go in, since it will get a share of your profits. There's just one problem: local indigenous communities are vehemently opposed, having seen nearby rivers polluted and people poisoned...
In late July, the Kichwa People of Sarayaku officially launched their visionary Kawsak Sacha (Living Forest) proposal to the world. It was an incredibly beautiful, energizing, and historic moment to witness!
A new chapter has opened in the Peruvian Achuar effort to keep their Amazonian territory free of oil companies with the official launch of the #AdiosGeoPark campaign. An important tool in this new campaign is the short but powerful video produced by Vagabond Films in conjunction with filmmaker Charles Gay.
On September 8th, Amazon Watch staff, Ecuadorian indigenous leaders, and hundreds of thousands of people around the world will rise to demand that our elected leaders take real climate action to get us off of fossil fuels in speedy and equitable fashion.
Now available for download and streaming, The Last Guardians takes viewers to the Ecuadorian Amazon to further understand the struggle of indigenous community members as they defend their land and culture against the threats they face from extractive industries.
"Once again, the [police] operation did not do its work." Given the grave socio-environmental impacts of organized crime in the Amazon, the Brazilian government must reign in local mafias, be they miners, loggers, or land grabbers. However, it cannot do this with isolated actions, nor by allowing its informants – in this case imperiled indigenous...
This World Rainforest Day, we're honoring the indigenous Earth Defenders who are risking life and limb every day. Ecuador, in particular, is a dangerous place to be an Earth Defender. In addition to criminalization – baseless criminal charges used to silence dissent – more and more Earth Defenders are being threatened and physically assaulted.
Yasuni Man is an award-winning documentary by filmmaker Ryan Killackey that tells the story of the Waorani people and their ancestral land, which, though one of the most biodiverse forest on earth, is threatened by extractive industries. Obviously, Yasuní National Park and Biosphere Reserve is one of the worst places on the planet to drill for oil...
In the end, Chevron's unethical legal thuggery will circle back to bite the new CEO Michael Wirth not only because it's based on false evidence and lies, but also because it has exposed him as someone no better than the executives at Texaco who made the fateful decision to deliberately pollute the Amazon in the first place.
When Gloria spoke to shareholders, the room paid rapt attention. Many had never heard an indigenous person speak about the impacts that oil drilling and climate change would have on their way of life. An issue that had seemed abstract became real, and the impact of their investment decisions gained a human face. Creating this personal connection...
More than 1,000 representatives of indigenous peoples traveled to New York in late April to participate in the 17th Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Amazon Watch supported and accompanied Amazonian leaders to call for respect and protection of their lives, cultures, and ancestral territories and an end to the harassment and...
Last week's mobilization was a shining example that spirited resistance is alive and well even in the dark days of the presidency of Michel Temer. This resistance provides a critical counterweight to growing repression and environmental devastation and deserves ample support, from local to global levels, to send a firm message to the Brazilian...
A hearing in a critically important case for the future of environmental protection, corporate accountability, and human rights took place in Toronto, Canada last week. At issue was an argument essential to corporate accountability: can individuals harmed by a corporation "pierce the corporate veil" to force it to account for judgements from...
About half of the oil exports from the Western Amazon Basin come to California to be processed by refineries and used by consumers in the state. This means that more oil from the Amazon rainforest is used in California than anywhere else in the world, and California's demand for this toxic crude oil is literally driving continued destruction...
The Human Rights Watch report found that the Correa government "amassed broad powers to curb public debate of its policies on the environment and other pressing issues..[then] abused these powers to harass, intimidate, and punish Ecuadorians who opposed oil and mining projects that the president endorsed...and used the criminal justice system to...
FUNAI's duty is to protect and promote the rights of Brazil's native peoples. Among its chief responsibilities is to identify, title, and supervise the country's vast array of indigenous territories. Yet the right to ancestral lands free from industrial activity - 98.5% of which fall within the Amazon's diverse ecosystems - presents an obstacle to...
"We are marching for our lives! Our sisters are being threatened, our rights are being trampled, and our territories are being destroyed. We are here as women to defend the Amazon against extraction. Enough is Enough!"
Moreno has his work cut out for him to get the country out from under the long shadow of Correa, and it remains to be seen how long Ecuadorians will give him to accomplish this challenging task. He should embrace the indigenous movement's call for no new expansion of extractive industries and permanent protection for their territories and join the...
Amazon.com is one of the world's largest retailers, ships millions of packages around the world every day, and prides itself on innovation – including expanding its own vehicle fleet. So why hasn't it been a pioneer in greening its transport operations? Why has it remained silent on the protection of the biome that serves as its namesake? It's...
With much joy and hope indigenous peoples will receive Pope Francis in Puerto Maldonado. They hope that he will translate their concerns and solutions into concrete words as he addresses the public and Peruvian decision-makers.
Last Thursday, Amazon Watch and CREDO Action delivered over 120,000 petition signatures to BlackRock's San Francisco headquarters, calling on the asset manager to divest from companies drilling for oil in the Amazon rainforest. The next day, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink sent a letter to large public companies calling on them to "serve a social...
Last week's announcement should be celebrated as a tentative victory, albeit a fragile one that demands vigilance as Brazil continues to weather political and financial instability. This victory will only become a reality when we insist it be upheld. We owe this to our on-the-ground partners for all they do on our behalf to defend this life-giving...
2017 was a tough year in so many ways, from corruption scandals to massive hurricanes to regressive legislation. But plenty of good things have happened, too – things that remind us of the perseverance, strength, and resilience of those who struggle every day for a better world. So we want to close the year reminding our community of readers...
