Organizers build altar drawing attention to rights violations, pollution, corruption, deforestation, and land-theft in rainforest by industry and enabled by governments
All Press Releases
For press inquiries or interview requests, please contact presslist@amazonwatch.org or +1.510.281.9020.
Chevron Uses AGM to Disregard Human Rights, Climate, Congress, and Billions It Owes to Communities
Chevron faced a barrage of shareholder proposals as well as opposition to the election of directors Ron Sugar and Michael Wirth, and failed to respond to the most pressing questions from shareholders about its practices.
Davos: Indigenous Leaders Call on Banks to Stop Funding Amazon Oil Expansion
Scientists and international organizations also calling for banks to follow lead of BNP Paribas and align with the Exit Amazon Oil and Gas platform
On the heels of World Biodiversity Day and in connection to an upcoming panel on the Amazon at Davos, tipping point scientists, Indigenous leaders, and international organizations are calling on banks and financial institutions that have gathered for the World Economic Forum in Davos to end financing for oil expansion in the Amazon.
Community Protest Saturday at Chevron Richmond Refinery on 9th Annual Global Anti-Chevron Day
Saturday, May 21, 2022, is the 9th annual Global Anti-Chevron Day. Communities in Richmond, CA affected by Chevron will join other communities around the world to share their stories about the impact of the oil company’s environmental destruction and human rights violations in advance of Chevron’s annual shareholder’s meeting on May 25, when the...
Science Group, Community Leaders, and Shareholder Advocates Discuss Chevron's Track Record on Financial Risk
Leaders share insights and guidance on how shareholder actions advance corporate accountability, ahead of Chevron annual stockholder meeting
In advance of Chevron’s Annual General Meeting of shareholders,scheduled for May 25, community advocates, shareholder groups, and corporate accountability experts held an online briefing for investors, the public, and the media.
Amazon Watch is building on more than 25 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.
GeoPark Oil Company (GPRK) a High-Risk Investment, Report by Human Rights and Environmental Organization Details
Risk alert based on recent field mission outlines the social, political, legal, environmental, and reputational risks for GeoPark’s operations in the Colombian and Ecuadorian Amazon
GeoPark's current attempts to expand operations into the Colombian and Ecuadorian Amazon are creating serious human rights and environmental challenges for the company and risks for investors, Amazon Watch detailed in a 19-page risk alert published today, coinciding with GeoPark’s quarterly earnings call for investors.
Statement on BNP Paribas Pledge to End New Financing for Amazon Oil Drilling
Bank involved in industry deals worth $13.3 billion. Move follows investigation by Stand.earth and Amazon Watch pushing firm to take a lead role in excluding Amazon oil and gas.
“BNP Paribas’ decision to stop financing new oil production in the Amazon is the first of its kind and a major milestone for us as Indigenous peoples. This decision affirms what we have been calling for – that financing oil extraction in the Amazon is putting our lives, lands, and cultures at risk, and the health of our entire planet, and must...
Frontline Leaders Call on BlackRock and Vanguard to Adopt Indigenous Rights and Deforestation Policy
BlackRock and Vanguard have opportunity to implement concrete climate policy addressing land rights, deforestation, and human rights abuses in portfolios
“The destruction of the Amazon rainforest is a threat to humanity and to the natural systems on which it depends. Indigenous Peoples are the best protectors of the Amazon, and we will continue to defend our rights and our territories from the extractive industries and threaten Indigenous Peoples and the rainforest.”
Citigroup AGM: Bank Called Out for Amazon Oil Financing
Report shows bank’s role in funding oil companies with ties to corruption, rights violations, pollution, and deforestation in the Amazon. Indigenous leaders, alongside human rights and environmental campaigners, calling for Citigroup to exit Amazon oil and gas.
“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. We are calling for an end to all new extraction on our lands, and as our ancestors and science now affirm...
Stand.earth and Amazon Watch Deploy 75-foot Banner Demanding Gavin Newsom End Amazon Destruction
Massive banner drop in Sacramento spotlights California and Amazon oil connection and calls on Governor Newsom to take action
Sacramento, CA — Today, activists from Stand.earth and Amazon Watch deployed a 75-foot banner from Sacramento’s iconic Tower Bridge to demand California governor Gavin Newsom stand up to Big Oil and end California’s role in the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest.
Canadian Banks Injected $5.8 Billion into Mining Companies Tied to Forest Destruction and Human Rights Violations
Forests & Finance Coalition, Walhi, and MAM launched a preliminary dataset revealing the financial flows to several forest-risk mining companies that operate in the world’s three largest tropical forest basins. Banks from Canada, the United States, and Japan are among the largest financiers of mining companies in the tropics
Brazil’s President Bolsonaro is using a possible fertilizer shortage caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine to justify his attempt to ram contentious legislation through Congress.
Climate Finance Groups Call on Financial Institutions to Heed IPCC Report Urging World to Stop Using Fossil Fuels
Report comes ahead of shareholder votes on fossil fuel expansion at six largest U.S. banks and major insurance companies
“The latest IPCC report affirms what Indigenous peoples in the Amazon and across the world have been saying for decades: colonialism caused the climate crisis, and colonialism continues to worsen it today."
Over 100 Environmental and Human Rights Organizations Join Amnesty International’s Call for Biden to Pardon Steven Donziger
Global human rights community calls for freedom for human rights lawyer Steven Donziger – unjustly detained for over two years according to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
“More than four months since a discerning opinion by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that found Steven Donziger’s detention to be arbitrary, U.S. judicial authorities have thus far failed to take any action to remedy the situation and implement the Working Group’s call to ensure Mr. Donziger’s immediate release.”
Bolsonaro Trying to Ram Through Mining Bill on False Pretenses; Canadian Mining Company to Profit.
Brazil’s President Bolsonaro is using a possible fertilizer shortage caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine to justify his attempt to ram contentious legislation through Congress.
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher Exposed in New Report: How a Notorious Law Firm Enables Corporate Exploitation
A new report, "Unacceptable Shenanigans" - How Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher Enables Corporate Exploitation, endorsed by ten national and international organizations, exposes how the notorious Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher law firm abets human rights violations by multinational corporations the world over.
Citigroup “Climate Forward” Reputation Remains Tainted with Impacts of Fossil Fuel Financing in Amazon Rainforest
Report shows bank’s role in funding state-run oil companies with ties to corruption, rights violations, pollution, and deforestation in the Amazon. Indigenous leaders, human rights and environmental campaigners calling for Citi to exit Amazon oil and gas
Ahead of Citigroup Investor Day, environmental campaigners at Amazon Watch and Stand.earth are releasing a report spotlighting the bank’s exposure and central role in providing financing and investments of tens of billions to oil and gas companies in the Amazon.
BlackRock, Vanguard Among Financiers That Poured Billions into Companies Mining in Amazonian Indigenous Territories
New report by the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) and Amazon Watch reveals main investors of eight large mining companies notorious for human rights violations and environmental pollution, including Vale, Anglo American, and Belo Sun, wish to explore Indigenous territories in Brazil.
Brasília, Brazil – Today the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), alongside environmental and human rights organization Amazon Watch, launched Complicity in Destruction IV: How mining companies and international investors drive Indigenous rights violations and threaten the future of the Amazon.
The Science Based Targets Initiative's Proposed FLAG Targets are a Corporate Gift to Big Agribusiness
The inclusion of carbon offset schemes and carbon intensity-based targets for commodity producers poses grave threats to Indigenous rights, forest ecosystems, and the climate, groups warn
Oakland, CA – Today, Amazon Watch and allied organizations submitted their opposition to the Science Based Targets Initiative’s (SBTi) newly-proposed Forests, Land, and Agriculture (FLAG) emissions targets. The proposed FLAG targets are incompatible with the action necessary to address the climate crisis.
Amazon Watch Statement: Highest Ecuadorian Court Finds Decree 751 Unconstitutional, Would Have Allowed Oil Drilling in Area Protected for Isolated Peoples
Quito, Ecuador – In a reprieve for Indigenous peoples living in isolation inside of Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park, the country’s top court declared Decree 751 unconstitutional, permanently prohibiting drilling in the buffer zone.
Indigenous Communities Confront Ecuadorian Government and International Financiers at Oil and Energy Conference
Promises of environmental responsibility ring hollow as recent major spill turns rainforest and rivers black with crude
Quito, Ecuador – Today the leaders of Ecuador’s Indigenous movement and the regional pan-Amazon Indigenous organization mobilized outside Ecuador’s Annual Conference for Oil and Energy to demand justice for communities affected by the recent disastrous Amazon oil spill and to denounce plans for new drilling.
Citigroup Fails to Rein in Oil and Gas Expansion to Address Amazon Rainforest Crisis
Oakland, CA – Yesterday, finance giant Citigroup released an outline of its latest plans to achieve net zero in its energy and power portfolios. Despite these new commitments, Citi remains a major bankroller of oil and gas expansion in the Amazon biome – as it is the top financier of state-owned oil companies in the Amazon. This reality is...
Brazilian Government To Hand Over Public Lands to Canadian Company In Back Door Deal
Land reform agency has negotiated with Belo Sun Mining corp. to reduce a public land settlement to favor a gold mining project in the Amazon. Families in the area have not been consulted. Negotiations are “null and void,” says Public Defender.
Oakland, CA – The federal agency tasked with land reform policy in Brazil, INCRA, has reduced the area of a settlement created 22 years ago to make room for gold mining. The negotiation, settled with a contract signed recently with the Canadian company Belo Sun Mining Corp., was revealed last week.
New Investigation Reveals California Fueling Amazon Rainforest Oil Drilling and Destruction
COSTCO, American Airlines, Amazon.com, FedEx, and other major corporations revealed in chain of custody research
“Oil extraction in our Ecuadorian Amazon has brought pollution, diseases, deforestation, destruction of our cultures, and the colonization of our territories. It is an existential threat to us, and it violates our fundamental rights as Indigenous peoples."
Ecuador’s Constitutional Court to Issue New Ruling on FPIC
Ecuadorian government granted an environmental license in 2011 for San Carlos Panantza mining project without consultation and consent of the Shuar Arutam
“These cases are not isolated. There is not a single mining or oil project where these rights have been adequately complied with, so it is urgent that the Court rule in accordance with international human rights standards,” said Carlos Mazabanda, Amazon Watch Ecuador Field Coordinator.
Tlaib, Garcia Lead Letter Asking AG Garland, DOJ to Intervene in Donziger Case
Human rights lawyer and environmental activist jailed for taking on Big Oil polluter Chevron
“The Biden administration can’t claim to believe in the importance of climate action, much less climate justice, if it is unwilling to defend the rights of frontline communities and their advocates holding the fossil fuel industry accountable,” said Paul Paz y Miño, Associate Director at Amazon Watch.
Brazilian Police Attack Indigenous Community Trying to Halt Illegal Mining on their Territory
Yesterday, Brazilian Military Police, including a squad of elite special police known as the BOPE, violently attacked a surveillance post maintained by the Macuxi people in the Indigenous community of Tabatinga, on Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Territory, Roraima state. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at peacefully assembled community...
Brazilian Indigenous Leader Faces Renewed Attack Upon Returning from the COP26 Summit
Oakland, CA – Last Saturday, Brazilian Indigenous leader Alessandra Korap Munduruku had her house invaded in the Amazonian city of Santarém, days after returning from the COP26 summit in Glasgow.
COP26 Agreement Fails to Address Climate Emergency, Take Necessary Steps to Protect Amazon and Respect Indigenous Peoples’ Rights
Fossil fuel lobby outnumbered Indigenous representation two to one, nations struck deal on international carbon markets despite Indigenous opposition to carbon pricing
Glasgow, UK – Undermining global hopes for meaningful action, the 26th annual Conference of Parties (COP26) climate summit in Glasgow concluded over the weekend without successfully addressing key drivers of the climate crisis, among them the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and the role of fossil fuels.
COP26: Frontline Communities Confront JPMorgan Chase on Violating Indigenous Rights and Financing the Climate Crisis
Glasgow, Scotland – Indigenous land defenders gathered outside the JPMorgan Chase offices in Glasgow’s financial district today to demand the bank stop financing fossil fuel extraction.
