Amazon Watch

More than two decades ago, helicopters, soldiers, and oil workers descended on the territory of the Kichwa people of Sarayaku, in the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Backed by the Ecuadorian government, the Argentinian oil company CGC sought to open their ancestral territory to oil exploration – without their consent.

Los Angeles, CA – Today, Playing For Change, a global project known for bringing together musicians from different countries in collaborative videos, released the song “Acontecer,” an international call to protect the Amazon, Indigenous peoples, and the planet. The track features Dani Lança, Manu Chao, and Alexandre Carlo, the lead singer of Natiruts, alongside artists from around the world.

This month, news broke that El Niño has officially begun. Scientists predict a strong likelihood that this year’s El Niño, a naturally-occurring climate phenomenon driven by warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures in the Pacific, will intensify into a super El Niño, with ocean temperatures spiking at least 2°C above normal. It will arrive in a world already pushed to its warming limits. For the Amazon rainforest, that matters enormously.

Standing beside a stream stained dark with oil in Ecuador’s northern Amazon, an Indigenous woman shook her head in disbelief as she stared at the oily sheen drifting across the water and broken pipes cutting through the forest. Nearby, gas flares burned above the treetops.

Canadian mining company Belo Sun has changed the leadership of its operations in Brazil: Adriano Espeschit is stepping down as the company’s president in the country. In his place, CEO Clóvis Torres will serve as interim president. The change comes less than a year after Espeschit was introduced to the market as the company’s key appointment for leading its relationship with regulatory bodies and local communities.

Houston, TX – Shareholders, Indigenous leaders, human rights defenders, and environmental justice advocates converged on Chevron’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) today to condemn the company’s ongoing refusal to address the devastating impacts of its operations on frontline communities worldwide.The meeting came less than two weeks after hundreds gathered in Richmond, California for the 13th annual Anti-Chevron Day mobilization, which brought together Indigenous leaders, refinery communities,...

Brasília, Brazil – Yesterday, Brazil’s Supreme Court (STF) upheld a law reducing the size of the Jamanxim National Park, allowing the polemic Ferrogrão railway project to move closer to environmental licensing. While the ruling clears an important hurdle for the megaproject, it does not authorize construction, confirm the railway’s environmental viability, or resolve major technical, legal, and socio-environmental issues that continue to delay the project.

Belém, Brazil – Yesterday, Amazonian Indigenous movements celebrated a political victory against Canadian-owned mining projects. In Amazonas state, a ruling by Brazil’s Federal Court of Appeals of the 1st Region (TRF1) strengthened the resistance of the Mura people against the Potássio Autazes Project, owned by Potássio do Brasil, Brazilian subsidiary of Canada’s Brazil Potash.

Download report in Spanish (35 MB) A new report on the impact of drug trafficking on Indigenous Peoples in Peru warns that the country faces a defining decision: confront the rapid expansion of organized crime in the Amazon, or risk allowing new systems of criminal power to take root across vast regions of the country.

Nearly three decades after communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon first brought global attention to Chevron’s crimes, and 13 years after activists launched the first Anti-Chevron Day in 20 countries, the resistance continues. Chevron remains one of the most polluting companies on Earth – and one of the most determined to avoid accountability for it.