Amazon Watch

Puyuk 2026, XII Pan-Amazon Social Forum (FOSPA) We, the Indigenous Peoples and Nations of the countries of the Amazon Basin, organized through the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) and its affiliated national organizations, together with Peoples and territorial governments from different territories, gathered in the city of Puyo, Ecuador, on August 16 and 17, 2026, on the occasion of the XII Pan-Amazon Social Forum (FOSPA), considering that: We, the...

Today, August 20, 2026, we come together in the city of Puyuk¹ to denounce three years of non-compliance with the popular consultation to leave oil in the ground. The Yasuní mandate calls the peoples of the Pan-Amazon together at this XII FOSPA.

Versión original en español I come from Sarayaku, a Kichwa community in the Ecuadorian Amazon that has spent decades defending its territory from oil exploitation. Throughout all this time, we have heard the same argument: beneath our forest lie resources that the country needs in order to develop, and those of us who oppose their extraction are portrayed as enemies of progress. But we know another kind of wealth.

Photos available here (Credit: Rodrigo Correia) Vila Tauiry, Pará, Brazil – Yesterday, in a symbolic ceremony, Amazonian riverine peoples, including fisherfolk, babassu nut breakers, and family farmers, declared the Pedral do Lourenção (Lourenção rocks) a community-recognized heritage site. They also announced plans to seek formal federal protection for the 43-kilometer rocky ecosystem in Brazil’s Tocantins River.

In May, Indigenous leaders brought the Amazon’s organized crime crisis to the U.N. in New York, demanding a meaningful role in fighting illegal mining, logging, and trafficking. Since then, developments have made the crisis more urgent, in both worrying and hopeful ways. Our earlier landmark report found that criminal networks or armed groups now operate in 67% of Amazonian municipalities and compete for territorial control in nearly a third of them.

Photos available here (Credit: Karen Toro) Napo, Ecuador – On Monday, the Federation of Indigenous Organizations of Napo (FOIN), the Kichwa communities of Serena and Tzawata, and social collectives from across the province held an event in defense of their territories as part of the XII Pan-Amazonian Social Forum (FOSPA), taking place in Ecuador from August 16 to 21, 2026.

For the Kichwa people of Sarayaku, defending their territory means defending the Amazon itself. Their struggle is deeply rooted in their ancestral territory in Ecuador, but the forces threatening the Amazon are global. So the movement to protect it must be global, too.

Few places concentrate today’s security challenges in the Amazon as clearly as the triple border between Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

Photos available here. Credit: @caiomota Brasília, Brazil – Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court is set to deliver a series of rulings this week that could fundamentally reshape Indigenous territorial rights and environmental safeguards nationwide. The cases concern the Marco Temporal land rights doctrine, Brazil’s new General Environmental Licensing Law, challenges involving the Amazon Soy Moratorium, and the regulation of mining on Indigenous lands.

Altamira, Brazil – Canadian mining company Belo Sun misled investors on July 27, presenting the dismissal of a lawsuit concerning its Volta Grande Gold Project as a “legal victory,” despite the court making no determination on the merits of the case.