Amazônia Real | On September 17, Amazônia Real, in partnership with Amazon Watch, witnessed this attack on the rainforest, Indigenous peoples, smallholder farmers, and biodiversity from up above during a flyover. From the sky, smoke from the fires obscures the environmental destruction on the ground – a combination of extensive deforested areas, pasture farms...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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.
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.
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."
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!
"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."
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...
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.
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...
"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...
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.
"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."
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!
Climate Home News | "Game used to be very easy here – pig, deer, tapir. But it is all gone due to the machines and pollution. Now, only one stream still has fish, but they are all sick from mercury. This damage will remain forever."
"My message here at COP 23 for the people, for allies of the world, is that we need to fight together, unite forces, because the states that are here speaking in our name are at a negotiating table where supposedly they are looking for solutions, but these solutions are for them, not for Indigenous peoples."
"I am but drop of water in the ocean, but together with many others we can shape the force of its waters and make change. This is what motivates my commitment to continue fighting, so that human rights, social-environmental justice, and that life be affirmed for present and future generations!"
Today is International Day of Action for Rivers, and what better way to commemorate it than watching the award-winning documentary film, Belo Monte: After the Flood!
Sentimos una tristeza profunda en Amazon Watch al ver el desalojo y la quema de los campamentos solidarios en Standing Rock. Como muchos de ustedes, los habíamos visitado y habíamos rezado, manifestado, y alzado la voz en apoyo a su territorio y su agua.
In a colorful and highly energized samba parade at Rio de Janeiro's world-famous Carnival on Monday morning, Imperatriz Leopoldinense, one of Brazil's most traditional and respected samba schools, paid a special tribute to indigenous peoples of the Amazon's Xingu River, highlighting threats to their territories, livelihoods and rights.
At Amazon Watch, we felt a profound sadness last Wednesday when the protests camps at Standing Rock were fully evacuated and destroyed. But the Standing Rock struggle, and the movement of indigenous peoples across the continent to defend their land and the environment, is nowhere near over.
