Amazon In Focus FALL 2018 - Amazon Watch
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Amazon In Focus FALL 2018
OUR MISSION & VISION CONTENTS
Our Mission Message from Our Executive Director ..................................... 1
Amazon Watch is a nonprofit organization founded in Our Work: Protecting the Amazon and Our Climate by
1996 to protect the rainforest and advance the rights of Supporting Indigenous Peoples................................................. 2
indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin. We partner with Profile: Jeremías Petseín Peas.................................................... 4
indigenous and environmental organizations in campaigns Peru’s Achuar Take Territorial Defense Global, Again........... 5
for human rights, corporate accountability and the
Divesting from Amazon Destruction: A New Strategy to
preservation of the Amazon’s ecological systems.
Defend the Amazon....................................................................... 7
Ending Amazon Crude Takes All of Us...................................10
Our Vision
Living Forest: A Visionary Model for Indigenous-Led
We envision a world that honors and values cultural Conservation.................................................................................12
and biological diversity and the critical contribution of
Portraits: Women Defenders of the Amazon.........................14
tropical rainforests to our planet’s life support system.
We believe that indigenous self-determination is a critical Amazon Watch on the Ground in Ecuador............................18
component of any successful conservation strategy for Building New Strategies to Stem Amazon Destruction in
the Amazon, and see that indigenous knowledge, cultures Brazil...............................................................................................20
and traditional practices contribute greatly to sustainable Chevron Still Facing Enforcement Risk in Canada for
and equitable stewardship of Mother Earth. We strive Polluting the Amazon..................................................................22
for a world in which governments, corporations and civil
Power to the Protectors: Solar Solutions for the Amazon’s
society respect the collective rights of indigenous peoples
Indigenous Stewards..................................................................23
to free, prior and informed consent over any activity
affecting their territories and resources. We commit, in the Amazon Protectors Fund: Direct support for Amazonian
spirit of partnership and mutual respect, to support our Indigenous Peoples.....................................................................24
indigenous allies in their efforts to protect life, land, and
culture in accordance with their aspirations and needs, as
well as the needs of future generations.
Front cover: Salomé Aranda, Kichwa of
Moretecocha, Moretecocha Women’s Leader,
Photo: Santiago Cornejo
Photo (this page): Bejat McCracken
MESSAGE FROM OUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Dear Friends of the Amazon:
When I think about the challenges of our time, I turn to the messages and guidance of our
indigenous relatives across Abya Yala (the Kuna word for “the Americas”), who remind us to
remain united in resistance and solutions to protect Mother Earth and all that is sacred.
While the threats to the Amazon and indigenous peoples seem daunting at times - with reports of
increased deforestation due to industrial activity and lawlessness resulting in attacks against Earth
Defenders - we cannot lose sight of hope and victories on the horizon. And while the day-to-day
isn’t always good, there are still many reasons to be hopeful for the future of the Amazon.
Indigenous peoples across the Amazon are resisting extraction and further destruction of their lands
and promoting visionary solutions to protect their rights and territories. The Achuar of Peru are standing
Photo: Rucha Chitnis
up, once again, to international oil companies trying to destroy their rainforest homes. And in July the
Kichwa people of Sarayaku officially launched and presented their visionary Kawsak Sacha (Living
Forest) proposal to the Ecuadorian government and the international community.
Sarayaku and the Achuar are heeding the call of the ancestors and climate scientists to protect forests, biodiversity, and
water by keeping fossil fuels in the ground and advancing alternative and renewable energy solutions. I’m also hopeful
and incredibly inspired by the rise of women and youth leadership across the Amazon and the world. Women Defenders
of the Amazon Against Natural Resource Extraction was formed after attacks on indigenous Earth Defenders and is now
a movement growing across the Amazon!
This kind of climate leadership is truly inspiring, and at Amazon Watch we are redoubling our commitment to support
and foment this kind of resistance and solution-building. The world needs, and we pledge to be a part of, bold climate
leadership committed to no new extraction and a just transition to renewable energy from California to the Amazon.
To do this, we need you! Please join us to stop Amazon destruction, advance indigenous solutions and support climate
justice with all of our indigenous partners and allies across Abya Yala.
For the Amazon and Mother Earth
Leila Salazar-López
Executive Director
1
Photo: Bejat McCracken
OUR WORK: Since 1996, Amazon Watch has protected the rainforest and
PROTECTING THE advanced the rights of indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin.
We partner with indigenous and environmental organizations in
AMAZON AND
campaigns for human rights, corporate accountability, and the
OUR CLIMATE preservation of the Amazon's ecological systems.
BY SUPPORTING
INDIGENOUS
PEOPLES
2
Stop Amazon Destruction Advance Indigenous- Support Climate Justice
Amazon Watch resists the destruction Led Solutions Amazon Watch joins with the climate
of the Amazon by challenging Amazon Watch supports and promotes justice movement to address the fact
disastrous development projects and indigenous-led alternative solutions that the most vulnerable -- especially
natural resource extraction and by to climate change, natural resource indigenous peoples and people of
promoting indigenous rights. extraction, and industrial development color -- bear the brunt of environmental
destruction, corporate greed, and
Current Priorities: Current Priorities: climate change, and are often excluded
from top-down solutions.
• Continue to develop our End Amazon • Scale up a robust and replicable Power
Crude campaign, with a particular to the Protectors program to deliver Current Priorities:
focus on the financiers of Amazonian oil solar energy, communications, and
companies, while deepening ties with transport solutions to remote Amazonian • Build partnerships with research and
California policymakers and forging a indigenous communities. media organizations and hone our
diverse and effective campaign coalition. visual storytelling on the importance of
• Support indigenous-led efforts to indigenous climate leadership.
• Work with Ecuadorian and global advance visions and proposals for
partners to halt the country’s planned a permanently protected Sacred • Support inter-ethnic and international
new auction of oil drilling concessions Headwaters bio-cultural region located alliance-building between indigenous
that threaten vast, pristine forests and the between the Napo and Marañón rivers in peoples of the North and South calling for
peoples who call them home. the Amazon. climate justice.
• Strengthen our campaign alongside • Formalize and expand our Amazon • Grow support for Earth Defenders of the
Peru’s Achuar people and a coalition of Protectors Fund to meet the growing Amazon through advocacy before national
partners to force GeoPark to abandon its financial needs of both established and and international authorities, emergency
Amazonian oil concession. new grassroots partners. response, and communications to amplify
the message of indigenous leaders and
• Slow Brazil’s ongoing assault on the
communities that are at the frontlines of
Amazon, environmental regulations, and
protecting the Amazon rainforest.
indigenous territorial rights by exposing
and severing international market and • Support and advance proposals by
investment ties to corrupt government indigenous women and youth on the
leaders linked to the agribusiness sector. frontlines of ecological destruction and
climate change in the Amazon.
3
PROFILE: JEREMÍAS PETSEÍN PEAS
Jeremías has led 45 Achuar communities in the Northern Jeremías’ tenure has been fraught with challenges. Shortly
Peruvian Amazon since May 2015, when he was elected after assuming the presidency, a key Achuar leader and
President of The Federation of the Achuar Nation of advisor, Lucas Irar Miik, tragically perished in the Pastaza
the Pastaza (FENAP). In that role, he has led efforts River while traveling home. Jeremías and the other FENAP
to implement the Achuar Life Plan, a bottom-up vision, representatives have had to manage tensions with neigh-
developed by Achuar community members, for culturally boring indigenous peoples, exacerbated by the emerging
appropriate development. Much of the work is carried oil activity. Such is the reality of indigenous leadership,
out among the communities within Achuar territory, which which Jeremías has faced with patience and resolve.
spans some two million acres. The struggle to defend
Achuar rights has also taken Jeremías to advocate before This visit is Jeremías’ first to the United States, and we are
the Peruvian Judiciary and Congress, the international delighted to host him as the Amplify gala’s keynote presenter.
press, and the Inter-American Human Rights Commission. Our relationship with the Achuar dates back fifteen years and
has spanned various presidents. We are honored to have
worked with Jeremías and will continue accompanying the
Achuar as future leaders assume the mantle.
4
climate but exclude communities
have failed. In parallel, indigenous
peoples have better organized
themselves to assert their rights,
and there is growing evidence that
forests are better taken care of when
communities’ rights are respected.”
Despite this, asserting their rights has
positioned the Achuar in opposition
to powerful economic and political
interests. First, the Achuar are fighting
a legal battle to demand a title for their
full ancestral territory, not just the current
parcels surrounding each community.
This would expand the area under their
control and strengthen their position
against oil, mining, or logging interests.
Success for the Achuar territorial claim
PERU’S ACHUAR The Achuar of the Pastaza River provide would reshape the landscape in Peru,
a different vision than the traditional top- opening the way for other Amazonian
TAKE TERRITORIAL down models of nature conservation, indigenous peoples to secure titles for
DEFENSE GLOBAL, as laid out in the Achuar Life Plan. Put tens of millions of acres. Understanding
to paper in 2003, the Life Plan outlines the precedent-setting potential of the
AGAIN the Achuar’s own development model case, the Peruvian national government
By Andrew Miller which includes a collective title for their has deployed a team of the country’s top
ancestral territory, keeping extractive lawyers in an attempt to shut it down.
Earlier this year, Peru received
companies and roads out, bilingual
international praise for creating the As their long-term legal process
education, intercultural health care,
Yaguas National Park, which covers is moving forward, the Achuar are
reforestation, and strengthening of their
over 2 million acres of rainforest in fighting off individual oil companies
governing structures.
the country’s northeastern Amazon. looking to enter an oil drilling
To the West and close to the Around the world indigenous concession the government has
Ecuadorian border, a federation of 45 peoples are finally being recognized denominated “Block 64,” which
Achuar communities in the Pastaza as the best protectors of their overlaps much of the Achuar’s
River basin are actively working territories, after decades of their ancestral territory. Encouraged by the
to protect a similar sized area that own international advocacy. As UN Peruvian government, internationally-
comprises their ancestral territory. Special Rapporteur on the Rights known companies like ARCO,
The Peruvian government is much of Indigenous Peoples, Vicky Tauli- Occidental, and Talisman made efforts
less enthusiastic about the Achuar Corpuz, recently said, “There is a to explore for oil over the last two
effort, however, and has actively realization that many of the initial decades. But all ultimately withdrew
opposed it at moments. Why? efforts to protect forests and the due to Achuar resistance.
5
The role of grassroots opposition
has even been recognized by
conservative Peruvian media outlets.
“One of the reasons for Talisman
Energy’s withdrawal was due to
the conflicts the company had with
Achuar indigenous communities in
the area of influence, who, along
with non-governmental organizations,
demanded the departure of the
company,” Peruvian financial magazine
Gestión wrote in September of 2012.
The article references an emblematic
incident in early May of 2009, in of federations that were created Internationally, the Achuar are taking
which dozens of Achuar representing by prior oil companies. Divide-and- the fight to GeoPark and their
the 45 communities staunchly conquer strategies die hard. financiers, accompanied by Amazon
opposed to oil marched through Watch. Prior to the company’s July
the jungle to the Situche Central oil Having expelled multiple companies shareholder meeting in Santiago,
platform within Block 64 to demand over the last 20 years, the majority Chile, we published a short video
Talisman’s departure. In response, of Achuar opposed to drilling are not featuring the Achuar that was
and mirroring jungle warfare sitting idly by as GeoPark attempts to circulated through social media and
tactics, the company helicoptered pick up where Talisman left off. The seen thousands of times. An online
in hundreds of armed men from FENAP federation - representing 45 action alert was signed by over
the pro-oil communities, causing a communities in the Pastaza and Morona 5,700 people, sending a message
tense situation almost resulting in River basins - has sent multiple official to GeoPark senior management that
bloodshed and was later denounced communiques to GeoPark, though people around the world stand with
by the Peruvian prosecutor’s office as with no response to date. They have the Achuar. More recently, the Achuar
attempted genocide. protested during various assemblies of began direct dialogues with key
Achuar communities, providing visual financial institutions and institutional
Extraordinarily, even given this expressions of their commitment to investors with millions of dollars
conflictive history readily found defend their territory. Recently, the in GeoPark shares, like JPMorgan
through a simple internet search, Achuar established a powerful strategic Chase, asset manager BlackRock, and
another multinational company called alliance with neighboring Wampis the California pension fund CalPERS.
GeoPark has stepped forward with Nation, which has a history of kicking
dreams of success in Block 64 out oil companies. And the Achuar After fifteen years of support for the
where others have failed. This has continue to push for Block 64 to be Achuar people of the Pastaza basin,
meant a renewal of tensions between annulled through the Peruvian court we are renewing our commitment to
communities living in the area; most system, with the support of the Peruvian collaborate until their territorial rights
oppose drilling, but a small handful human rights organization International are guaranteed. Please join us!
support it, operating under the banner Institute for Law and Society.
6
DIVESTING rights, people are rising up to the in fighting apartheid in South Africa.
challenge undeterred. And now More recently, students across the
FROM AMAZON more than ever, they are creating globe have used this tactic to get
hope by building alliances from universities to move their money
DESTRUCTION: the global North to the South. out of the fossil fuel industry in an
A NEW STRATEGY effort to curb climate change. The
One particular area where we logic behind fossil fuel divestment
TO DEFEND THE have seen alliances growing in is simple: stop the flow of capital if
AMAZON strength and numbers is within you want to stop the root cause of
the global fossil fuel divestment extractive industries.
By Roberta Giordano movement. Divestment has been
Despite the ongoing war waged used as a tactic to advance social In early 2016, the No Dakota
by the Trump administration and environmental justice for Access Pipeline movement that
against the planet and the decades. In the past, divestment emerged from Standing Rock took
upsurge of a fascist wave across campaigns have targeted tobacco the fossil fuel divestment campaign
the globe trampling human companies and were instrumental to a new level. Witnessing this
7
movement arising was one of the Standing Rock not only to show in 2017, Amazon Watch decided
most powerful and inspiring moments solidarity to the Sioux tribe in their to take a more active role in this
for me. It shed further light onto the struggle, but to also tell the story movement calling for shifting
major role that financial institutions about how the battles of indigenous capital away from destruction, and
play in not only perpetuating the communities in the North are like released a report exposing the
desecration of Mother Earth, but also those in the South. We, and our financiers of some of the oil and
in the violation of indigenous rights partners from Sarayaku, also gas companies directly threatening
and territories. wanted to demonstrate that the our partners on the ground.
culprits behind extractive projects
Despite the fact that international affecting indigenous communities To no one’s surprise, we found that
frameworks recognize the right are often one and the same. two of the world’s largest financial
of Indigenous communities to Recognizing these connections, institutions, JPMorgan Chase
give or withhold their free, prior,
and informed consent (FPIC) for
development that impacts their
land, the project financing of the
Dakota Access Pipeline showcased
a systemic lack of transparency
and implementation of FPIC within
the world of financing. The call to
unite under indigenous leadership
for a global divestment movement
from companies funding abuses
and destruction came forth as
a strategy to advance the rights
of indigenous peoples. I still
remember seeing thousands of
people from all over gathering
at Standing Rock to stand up in
solidarity with the Sioux Tribe and
put their bodies on the line to stop
the pipeline from being built, and
the call from the Sioux Tribe to join
them in their efforts to pressure
banks to stop the financing of
deadly projects to indigenous and
frontline communities.
That year, Amazon Watch
accompanied people from the
Kichwa community of Sarayaku to
Photo: RAN
8and BlackRock, have assets in
companies like Geopark, Frontera,
and Andes Petroleum, all of which
hold licenses to explore and/or
drill in the Western Amazon. While
it is fossil fuel companies that do
the actual drilling in the Amazon,
in writing the report we began to
understand that ultimately the
institutions providing the financial
resources to drill are just as
implicated in the rights violations
suffered by communities impacted
by the drilling.
This new area of work gave
Amazon Watch the opportunity
to widen our coalitions and
partnerships between the North and
South in more visible and creative
ways. Even here in our hometown
of Oakland, we have supported
Defenders of Mother Earth-Huichin, planet and violating indigenous With so much at stake for our
an indigenous-led coalition working rights. Together with our allies at climate and for our future, we
to pressure the city to cut its ties Rainforest Action Network and know we cannot let ourselves
with banks funding fossil fuels, the the Sunrise Project, we supported be paralyzed by the constant
violation of indigenous sovereignty, Gloria and Manari Ushigua of the challenges arising every day. With
and mass incarceration. In 2017, Sapara Nation in telling their stories this new area of work, Amazon
because of our united efforts, the of survival and resistance in front Watch has been able to rise
Oakland City Council passed strict of the CEOs of BlackRock and above these challenges by uniting
legislation requiring any bank JPMorgan Chase at their Annual with indigenous communities
hoping to do business with the city Shareholders Meeting. Gloria and other groups across the U.S.
to disclose its investments in such and Manari spoke vividly about in pressuring these financial
projects. As a result, JPMorgan the impacts of oil drilling in their institutions to recognize that
Chase no longer provides community and these executives our future lies in protecting our
depository services to the city. could not help but pay attention. environment, our rights, and
Since then, Amazon Watch has our climate and not in risky
We have also joined forces been engaging in conversations investments that prioritize profits
with other U.S.-based NGOs in with these companies on the over people.
targeting these financial institutions impacts of their investments.
responsible for wrecking the
9ENDING AMAZON once dry. These sorts of changes This year’s natural disasters and
have dire consequences, particularly the more subtle shifts in the climate
CRUDE TAKES for indigenous peoples whose remind us that we are living in a
livelihoods depend directly on the moment of planetary and societal
ALL OF US health of their environment. crisis. And we cannot address this
By Zoë Cina-Sklar crisis while continuing to drill for more
Our partners’ adaptation to a oil and gas. Period.
The impacts of climate change are changing climate and continued
all around us, from devastating determination to protect their Through our years of working on
fires to powerful hurricanes and territories from extractive development the ground in Ecuador, Peru, and
unprecedented heat waves. Our inspires us onward. Alongside our Colombia, we have witnessed the
partners in the Amazon are feeling indigenous allies, we are speaking destruction that oil drilling causes to
these impacts as well; they tell us out about the imperative of ending the rainforest ecosystem, indigenous
that the rhythms of the seasons are Amazon crude as a way to fulfill our peoples and campesinos. We have
changing, that the Earth is parched mission of protecting the rainforest also supported the Kichwa people
during the wet season and that rains and the climate by advancing of Sarayaku and the Achuar people
drench the land at times when it was indigenous rights. of Peru in organizing to push oil
10companies off of their territories and U.S. and financial institutions here In May 2018, we had the honor of
use legal mechanisms to ensure bankroll oil companies operating in hosting Gloria and Manari Ushigua
that companies and governments the Amazon. Because of this, we’re of the Sapara people of Ecuador.
respect their land rights and right pushing these powerholders to do While in the U.S. they shared powerful
to self-determination. These place- their part to End Amazon Crude. stories about their community's
based victories serve as models to resistance to oil drilling with everyone
communities around the world. They About half of the oil exports from from indigenous leaders to Wall Street
also form key threads of our broader the Western Amazon Basin come CEOs - resulting in direct engagement
organizational work to stop new oil to California to be processed by with the high-level executives of
drilling in the Amazon, a campaign we refineries here, and then used financial institutions and new bridges
call End Amazon Crude. by businesses and consumers. to California policymakers.
This makes California the world’s
This campaign spans many different largest purchaser of Amazon crude. The Sapara people returned to
aspects of our work at Amazon Policymakers must play a key role California again in the Fall of 2018,
Watch. It is the work of Carlos, our in reducing Amazon crude imports along with leaders from Sarayaku,
Ecuador field coordinator, who meets to the state and, in broader terms, to participate in high-level events
with indigenous peoples around accelerating the state’s transition surrounding the Global Climate
Ecuador to better understand their away from oil and gas production and Action Summit. There, they shared
demands for territorial protection, processing as a whole. their experiences of resistance to
participates in community-wide oil drilling with a global audience as
meetings, and leads communications To this end, we are building well as the climate solutions that they
skills trainings for youth leaders. It is relationships with Sacramento propose, from distributed solar energy
our decades-long partnership with policymakers and working in coalition systems for remote communities to
the U’wa people of the Colombian with a large number of California the Living Forest.
cloud forests who began the call to organizations and grassroots groups
keep fossil fuels in the ground over 20 to push outgoing Governor Jerry While a United States audience
years ago. It is our many international Brown and his replacement to commit continues to learn more about
advocacy campaigns in support of California to ramping down fossil fuel oil drilling in the Amazon, these
our partners’ demands. And it is our production and processing in the communities - and many others -
efforts to help communities build state in a just and equitable way. organizing to protect the Amazon
alternative models of development not know they are not alone: they have
Likewise, we are bringing to light the a growing network of allies who will
based on fossil fuel extraction. key role of United States’ financial support their efforts to protect their
The newest addition to this work institutions in financing oil companies territories from oil drilling and other
is our effort to bring the story of oil operating on indigenous territories in extractive development. They - and
drilling in the Amazon to the United the Amazon and putting pressure on we - know we are fighting together,
States in an innovative way. U.S. them to divest from these companies creating a web of connections and
institutions and corporations play - and ultimately get out of Amazon oil building solutions and visions for
a key role in driving this ongoing and all fossil fuels altogether. (See a clean and equitable world, one
destruction because the majority of “Divesting from Amazon Destruction” place at a time.
Amazon crude exports end up in the in this issue for more on this work.)
11extraction, based on the life-plans
developed by the people of Sarayaku.
But Kawsak Sacha is not only the
response of resistance in the Amazon;
it is a critical solution in recognition
of indigenous rights and territories
around the Amazon and the world.
While indigenous territories and the
rights of nature are recognized in
Ecuador, they are often not respected.
Case in point: the Ecuadorian
government has once again violated
the historic Inter-American Court
of Human Rights ruling in favor of
Sarayaku, which ordered that the
Ecuadorian government consult with
LIVING FOREST: Forest) proposal to the world, and Sarayaku before initiating any natural
Amazon Watch was there to support resource extraction projects on their
A VISIONARY and celebrate alongside them. territory. In fact, the Ecuadorian
MODEL FOR government has once again
What is Kawsak Sacha? concessioned Sarayaku’s territory to
INDIGENOUS-LED oil drilling, and plans to launch a new
Kawsak Sacha - which roughly
CONSERVATION translates to “Living Forest” - is
oil round across the country’s Amazon
region overlapping with the territories
By Leila Salazar-López & Moira Birss Sarayaku’s way of referring to of multiple indigenous peoples later
their direct physical and spiritual this year.
For the last twenty years, the Kichwa connection with all the beings in the
people of Sarayaku have resisted all rainforest and the recognition that the Recognition of indigenous and forest
efforts to extract resources from their forest itself is a living and conscious rights cannot just be left to national
territory. In doing so they have kept being with the right to be protected. governments, Sarayaku has realized,
approximately 100 million barrels Kawsak Sacha, in that it embodies so its Living Forest proposal calls
of oil in the ground, and inspired Sarayaku’s practice of working with for a new international category of
us with their steadfast resistance the forest to maintain spiritual and conservation based on indigenous
and determination to be a shining ecological balance, is a declaration of worldviews and cosmovision and
light for the Amazon and beyond. hope for the world’s future. upholds indigenous self-determination
However, the people of Sarayaku and governance. While indigenous
are not content with keeping their The Kawsak Sacha declaration is rights and territories are recognized
example and wisdom to themselves. a proposal for conservation and in Ecuadorian and international
In late July 2018, Sarayaku officially preservation of Sarayaku’s ancestral law, there is no law or international
launched its Kawsak Sacha (Living territory, free from any form of industrial conservation category that recognizes
12the interrelationship between inauguration, launch and conference
indigenous peoples and the forest. events. It was no small feat!
At a meeting with international allies The minga also involved Sarayaku’s
in Quito during the launch events, international allies to promote and
Jose Gualinga, former President of support the launch, including Amazon
Sarayaku, explained: Watch, IEN, WECAN, Pachamama
Alliance, Rainforest Action Network,
“Protected areas created by the Land is Life, Oro Verde and more,
Ecuadorian government and as well as author and academic
international organizations don’t Eduardo Kohn. At the launch, our
protect us and in many cases team worked closely with Sarayaku’s
have violated our rights. They are communications team and in
temporary solutions that can be coordination with Indigenous Rising new category is recognized, the
changed and manipulated by those Media and Fundación Pachamama to people of Sarayaku hope that others
in power. What we are proposing ensure that the Kawsak Sacha launch around the world will use it as a
events and voices of the people of model to protect rights and territories
is permanent protection of living
Sarayaku were heard. for all of our collective future.
forests or other critical ecosystems
for which indigenous peoples and The launch included a formal The people of Sarayaku have called
the whole world depend.” presentation to the Ecuadorian upon local, national and international
government and international allies to support the full recognition
Launching Kawsak Sacha dignitaries, as well as an exhibition and implementation of the Kawsak
and conference in Quito to showcase Sacha proposal. Amazon Watch
to the World
Sarayaku's way of life, culture, and has worked closely with the people
For the six months preceding the alternative vision for truly living well in of Sarayaku since 2002 and is fully
launch, the people of Sarayaku the world. The launch was timed to committed to ensuring that their
engaged in a minga like no other. coincide with the six-year anniversary visionary proposal is implemented
A minga is a communal work of the historic ruling at the Inter- and replicated across the Amazon
effort, like building a house or American Court of Human Rights. and the world.
planting a new garden. The Kawsak
Sacha minga involved the entire During the launch, Sarayaku As global temperatures rise,
community, including Tayjasaruta, officially submitted the Kawsak and greenhouse gas emissions
Sarayaku’s governing body led by Sacha proposal to the Ecuadorian increase, it is clear that solutions
its President Mirian Cisneros; the government and international to our climate crisis will come from
Kurakas, community leaders; the representatives of the IUCN local, indigenous and grassroots
communications team; the women’s to advance their goal of formal communities working to protect
association; Atayak, the traditional recognition of Kawsak Sacha as rights, defend nature, keep fossil
school; Wio, the indigenous guard; a new category of conservation fuels in the ground and advance
children; and many volunteers in harmony and in respect of a just transition to 100%
to plan all of the logistics for the indigenous worldviews. Once this renewable energy.
13PORTRAITS:
WOMEN
DEFENDERS
OF THE
AMAZON
Photos by Santiago Cornejo,
text by Moira Birss
For decades, oil companies
have taken advantage of the
resource-rich land of the
western Amazon, violating Irene Toqueton Vargas, Sapara, Women’s Leader
the basic human rights of
indigenous peoples 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 this
ongoing battle are the strong,
resilient indigenous women
Earth Defenders.
Some have faced death threats
Rosa Dahua, Sapara Women’s Association
and attacks for their courageous
work to defend their rights and The Sapara Nation of the Ecuadorian Amazon is recognized by UNESCO as an “Intangible Cultural
their Amazon territories. Heritage of Humanity” because their language and culture are in danger of disappearing. There are
about 500 Sapara people still living in their ancestral home; though the Sapara population is small,
their territory is quite large and is a critical part of the Amazonian ecosystem. However, Sapara
territory -- and the Sapara themselves -- are in serious danger from oil drilling planned for two oil
blocks that overlap with approximately 500,000 acres of their ancestral territory.
14Yet instead of backing down,
they have redoubled their
efforts to assure an Amazon
rainforest free of natural
resource extraction and an
end to threats against them
and other Earth Defenders.
These women, united under the
banner of "Women Defenders
of the Amazon Against Natural
Resource Extraction,” carried
out a series of marches and
Catalina Chumpi, Shuar Nation, Coordinator of COMNAP (Organization of Indigenous Women of Pastaza) protests in March of 2018
that eventually took them to
Ecuador’s capital, Quito, and all
the way to an unprecedented
meeting with President Lenin
Moreno. There, they denounced
rights abuses, the environmental
impacts of extraction, and the
overall climate of violence that
the industry has created for
women. They also presented
the President with a series of
demands for the protection of
their rights and of the Amazon.
María Taan, Shuar, Member of the Taisha Association
Amazon Watch accompanied
The Shuar people, whose ancestral territory straddles the border between the Andes and the these marches and protests, and
Amazon, are struggling to protect their rights and territories since the Ecuadorian government
we continue to stand with them.
sold the rights for an open-pit copper mine project to Explocobres, a subsidiary of two Chinese
companies. In recent years the communities have faced violent evictions, criminalization and
threats due to their opposition to the damaging impacts of the mine.
15The Kichwa of Sarayaku, whose territory lies in the
Ecuadorian Amazon, are a visionary people who
have succeeded in protecting their territory from
oil drilling and are now sharing their model of care
and relationship with the rainforest to the world.
Elsewhere in this issue you can read more about
their groundbreaking efforts to build international
models for indigenous rights and forest protection.
Noemi Gualinga, Coordinator of the Kuriñambi Women’s Association of Sarayaku
Salomé Aranda, Kichwa of Moretecocha, Moretecocha Women’s Leader Rosa Cuji, Lipuno of Moretecocha
The community of Moretecocha has suffered for decades from the efforts of the government and oil companies to find
any and all oil in the area. A principle culprit is Italian oil giant ENI, which has operated in the region for 28 years and
has plans to expand its drilling deeper into the rainforest. Community leaders who have spoken out against the impacts
of ENI’s operations, like Salomé Aranda, have faced threats and attacks. Aranda was attacked while in her home with
her family soon after ENI was confronted at its annual shareholder meeting for its drilling in Moretecocha despite lack
of community consent. Nonetheless, Aranda and others like Rosa Cuji continue their work to defend their community.
16Mercedes Tsamaraint Tukup, Achuar of Pumpuentsa
Zoila Irumenga, Waorani of Tobera Rosario Calapucha, Kichwa of Shiguacocha
Waorani ancestral territory abuts, and in some places is overlapped by, Yasuní National Park in the
Ecuadorian Amazon. Despite supposed protections in this region, over the last half-century the oil industry
has opened roads for oil platforms and pipelines into the heart of Waorani territory. Now, the government
wants to sell rights to exploit oil in one of the last remaining oil-free, roadless areas in Waorani territory.
17From Working in the
Field to Demanding
the Fulfillment of
Indigenous Rights
Indigenous peoples in Ecuador
have been developing their own
organizational system since the
1980s, as a strategy that has
allowed them to raise their voices
and seek respect for their rights.
Amazon Watch’s advocacy on behalf
of our indigenous allies and our work
to strengthen their knowledge of and
capacity to defend their collective
rights is key to this strategy.
This is one of the most rewarding parts
of the work I do, because being ‘on-
AMAZON WATCH territories belonging to indigenous the-ground’ allows me to have close,
direct contact and build trust with our
peoples. Those indigenous peoples
ON THE GROUND have, despite the powerful forces indigenous partners. The men, women,
stacked against them, managed to and children of those communities
IN ECUADOR protect much of the rainforest. Case will always have something new to
By Carlos Mazabanda in point: although oil blocks overlap teach us all about the importance of
27% of the Amazon - in the northern the Amazon rainforest that is their
I have had the privilege of working region - 84% of the Amazon still homeland, and in this way we can
with organizations and indigenous retains its natural vegetation. experientially recognize the importance
communities for 12 years, and for of the rights they are defending.
almost two years now at Amazon Amazon Watch has focused its
Watch as the Field Coordinator in Ecuador field work in the central An example of this is the support we
Ecuador. With this work, Amazon and southern parts of the western have provided to the Shuar Arutam
Watch hopes to strengthen our Amazon. These are the least people (known by the acronym PSHA),
mission of closely collaborating deforested areas in the western who at the end of 2016 were evicted
with indigenous partners facing Amazon and are home to seven by security forces from the part of their
government and corporate indigenous nationalities that territory that is overlapped by the “San
actions that directly threaten their encompass more than one thousand Carlos-Panantza” copper mine, located
territories and violate their rights. communities, and where pressures in the “Condor” mountain range on the
to implement oil and mining projects border with Peru.
56% of the Ecuadorian Amazon’s remain strong.
72,000 square miles consist of
18Since then, Amazon Watch, together with the communities, as is required In the case of Block 10, we worked
with the Ecuadorian organization by law. As with the PSHA, we have in partnership with ASUD, an
Fundación Tiam, has worked with the supported and participated in various organization based in Italy, which
PSHA to provide technical and financial community assemblies, including the presented the information we
support for their community assemblies. one in which leaders of the different collected at ENI’s annual shareholder
indigenous nations affected by Block meeting this year. This was the
These kinds of assemblies are 10 (Shuar, Morete commune, Sapara, first time that ENI’s shareholders
of vital importance to indigenous and Sarayaku) officially unified their had been presented with concrete
communities because they are where rejection of the expansion of oil activity information demonstrating that local
the decisions that govern their future in their territories. communities have clearly rejected oil
are made. It is there that, through operations on their territories and that
their processes of traditional decision Related to this is another aspect of their rights have been violated.
making, they analyze and discuss our advocacy, which involves working
projects that are affecting, or could with indigenous peoples to develop Unfortunately, in response to the
affect, their territories. effective strategies to assure their community’s activism, threats and
rights are respected and enforced. attacks have been made against
Another example is that of the This often includes legal actions some community members and
communities affected by the oil before national and international leaders, including Salomé Aranda
contracts in the oil concession known authorities that must ensure (read more about Salomé in the
as “Block 10.” In 2010 the Ecuadorian compliance with collective rights. Amazonian Women Earth Defenders
government signed a drilling contract photo essay in this issue). In support
with the Italian oil company ENI that In support of the PSHA and the of Salomé, Amazon Watch issued
included changes in the shape of the communities of Block 10, we have a call to action to our supporters,
block to include new oil fields. In doing gathered information about rights who sent messages to the CEO
so, the government included new violations committed against them, of ENI demanding an investigation
indigenous territories within the Block then used this systemized information into the attacks and new measures
without having properly consulted to produce publications that inform to prevent future aggression of this
citizens about the problem and serve company. This call received over
as the basis for legal actions and 7,000 signatures!
political advocacy. For example, we
produced reports on the human With this work we want to contribute
rights situation of PSHA in relation to to achieve full compliance of the
San Carlos-Panantza mine which we rights of indigenous peoples and of
presented before the Inter-American nature. This is a long and winding
Commission on Human Rights and path, but one to which Amazon
submitted as part of civil society’s Watch, allied organizations, and
“alternative report” to the United especially indigenous people, are
Nations’ Universal Periodic Review on committed to traversing.
the human rights situation in Ecuador.
19Photo: Greenpeace
BUILDING NEW one of the planet’s most disastrous to 1985. As the country descends
projects and the politics and industry into a deepening political crisis, an
STRATEGIES TO that underpinned it. ultra-conservative congressional bloc
known as the ruralistas has become
STEM AMAZON Today, while the Brazilian Amazon’s emboldened. Representing Brazil’s
DESTRUCTION IN rivers remain endangered by a similar agroindustrial sector, the ruralistas
destructive development model, the are waging a relentless campaign
BRAZIL political will and financial largesse to reap extraction-driven profit from
required to push new dams forward the Amazon’s forests. As a result,
By Christian Poirier
has waned, at least for now. As key environmental protections and
When Amazon Watch reinstated always, our work must evolve to indigenous territorial rights are being
its Brazil program in 2009, we address emerging challenges by systematically dismantled in favor of
did so at the behest of grassroots leveraging our strengths and diverse agribusiness, industrial mining, and
partners who urged us to focus on a partnerships across Brazil and infrastructure complexes such as
pressing concern of the indigenous the globe to support the country’s dams and waterways.
movement: the government’s indigenous and human rights
steamrolling of plans for new, large movement to create positive change. This unfolding ecological and
dam projects in the Amazon. We human rights disaster requires a
Currently, a new wave of industrial well-coordinated and definitive
began work on the Madeira River and
expansion into the Amazon is causing response. As a member of a broad,
then focused on the Xingu, where
rampant deforestation and rollbacks largely-Brazilian coalition known
we helped lead a major international
on environmental and human rights as #Resista, Amazon Watch
campaign to stop the construction of
norms that are unprecedented since recently launched a collaborative,
the Belo Monte dam. Our work was
the fall of Brazil’s brutal military groundbreaking market campaign
motivated by a call to action to stop
dictatorship, which ruled from 1964 that takes a fresh approach to
20confronting the roots of this problem. of Amazon crude. Our goal is not Global solidarity can make the
only to compel these actors to cut difference at this critical moment: the
Our new campaign identifies strategic, ties with ruralista targets, but to government’s sensitivity to its image
emblematic actors among the send a signal to the worst elements abroad and its increasing reliance on
ruralistas based on their particularly of Brazil’s agroindustrial sector international corporate and financial
retrograde records in politics as that the international community actors to remedy its ailing economy
well as the private sector, where will not tolerate, nor sustain, their creates a unique opportunity to apply
they produce and sell commodities, unacceptable behavior. timely pressure upon the country’s
from soybeans to orange juice, for reputation, and upon transnational
export. We then expose the ruralista’s The rationale driving Amazon traders that sustain the destructive
links to the transnational companies Watch’s new campaigning on agribusiness sector, thereby halting
that purchase and import these Brazilian agribusiness is the same threats and advancing urgent socio-
commodities and bring them to that informed our work to challenge environmental reform.
consumers in Europe and the United the Amazon dam-building boom: the
States. In doing so we seek to build imperative to lead innovative and We have the ability, and the
new tools and leverage points to target dynamic coalition-based strategies obligation, to push back.
and shift major U.S. and European that challenge the
financial and corporate enablers of this principal drivers
anti-environmental and anti-indigenous behind attacks on the
movement, ultimately rendering today’s Amazon rainforest
ruralista-driven assault both politically and its indigenous
and financially untenable. and traditional
communities.
Drawn from Brazilian investigative
journalism and supply chain As with much of our
research in Europe, a report we work, we hope to
published in September 2018, act as catalysts of a
entitled “Complicity in Destruction: larger movement to
How Northern Consumers and defend human rights
Financiers Sustain Today’s Assault and environmental
on the Brazilian Amazon and its sanity not just in
Peoples” exposes major brands the Amazon, but
such as U.S.-based Coca-Cola, around our planet.
Switzerland-based Schweppes and Today’s troubling
Germany-based Weisenhof, whose global trend of
operations directly implicate them authoritarian politics
in the ruralista’s regressive agenda. jeopardizes decades
Meanwhile, we’ve uncovered links of hard-fought
to BlackRock and other financiers, socio-environmental
tying our Brazil agribusiness protections.
campaign findings to our emergent
work on the key global financiers
21"lifetime of litigation" and to fight the continuing their campaigns. Chevron’s
judgment "until Hell freezes over, and new corporate “playbook” is a threat to
then fight it out on the ice." corporate accountability everywhere.
Under former CEO John Watson In the coming months Canada’s
Chevron spent hundreds of millions Supreme Court will hear an appeal
of dollars on a strategy of legal of the ruling of the lower court that
thuggery and intimidation to try to Chevron-Canada’s assets could
stop the Ecuador case and later not be seized to cover Chevron
to escape enforcement. Yet this Corporation’s liabilities. The Supreme
year when Watson turned over the Court will also be presented with
company to new CEO Michael Wirth, evidence demonstrating that
he also left him with an ongoing Chevron’s retaliatory suit in the U.S.
enforcement action in Canada, a was based on testimony from a
multi-billion dollar liability, continued bribed witness who since admitted
CHEVRON shareholder discontent and growing to perjury and evidence disproving
grassroots pressure. Chevron’s key claims of fraud and
STILL FACING “ghostwriting” of the Ecuadorian
Recently 36 institutional shareholders,
ENFORCEMENT collectively representing over $109
verdict. More importantly, Chevron’s
preemptive legal attack in the U.S.
RISK IN CANADA billion in assets under management, demonstrates why Canada must
called on new Wirth to finally redress
FOR POLLUTING Chevron's toxic legacy in the Amazon.
protect the right to access to justice
for the Ecuadorian communities.
THE AMAZON New grassroots actions against
Chevron continues - as close to These facts will make the Canadian
By Paul Paz y Miño a million Avaaz members wrote to court decision that much more
one of Chevron's largest investors, critical to the issues of international
From 1964 to 1992, Chevron, then
Vanguard Group, to demand it cut comity and access to justice for
operating as Texaco, deliberately
its investments if Chevron does not indigenous peoples and others
dumped 16 billion gallons of toxic
clean up its toxic waste in the Amazon. harmed by corporations. The
oil drilling waste into the once
In fact, as more Canadian NGOs pressure on the Supreme Court of
pristine Amazon rainforest to save
join the campaign, the movement Canada to take a stand in one of the
a mere $3 per barrel. Indigenous
against Chevron is only growing and most egregious cases of corporate
and farmer communities sued
Amazon Watch believes it critical that crime and abuse of power will
and in 2011 Chevron was found
the pressure on Chevron continues be considerable. Amazon Watch
liable for $9.5 billion after years of
in what remains the most important continues to support the fight for
litigation in Ecuador – the venue of
corporate accountability case in justice in this case as it approaches
its own choosing. Despite having
history. Indeed, Chevron’s legal a new chapter with the pending
admitted to the dumping, Chevron
intimidation tactics are already being ruling by Canada’s Supreme Court.
has vowed never to pay for a clean
used by other corporations to try
up and promised the communities a
to stop environmental NGOs from
22tools are critical to the forest stewards
endeavoring to safely implement their
own forms of sustainable development,
visions for environmental protection,
and territorial and cultural defense.
Power to the Protectors therefore
strives to set positive precedents for
solar-powered solutions across the
Amazon basin and around the globe.
Since 2016 we have worked with the
U’wa people of Colombia, the Sapara
POWER TO THE isolated, making them vulnerable to people of Ecuador, and the Munduruku
repression and limiting their ability to people of Brazil to deliver a variety of
PROTECTORS: defend themselves and their territories. solar and communications hardware
The Amazon is among the most
SOLAR SOLUTIONS dangerous places in the world to be
in partnership with the NGOs
Empowered by Light, the Give Power
FOR THE AMAZON’S an Earth Defender, and our partners Foundation, and Greenpeace Brazil.
routinely face threats for their enduring
INDIGENOUS resistance to industrial development.
With these successful pilot projects
behind us, our coalition now seeks
STEWARDS to significantly scale up the program;
To address this concerning reality
we aim to bring solar, radio, and
By Christian Poirier Amazon Watch launched the Power
internet infrastructure to an expanded
to the Protectors program, which
As the many communities spanning circle of partners and implement a
provides indigenous communities
the Amazon’s vast network of robust training and capacity building
across the Amazon basin with solar
indigenous territories face mounting component to maximize both the
and communications infrastructure
threats to their rights, lands, and longevity and impact of new systems.
and builds local capacity and
wellbeing due to the ever-expanding expertise in clean energy solutions. With Amazonian Earth Defenders
presence of industrial activities The provision of radio and satellite under siege, we must respond. The
like oil drilling, agribusiness, and internet, accompanied by clean and success of their vision for territorial
mining, innovative responses are secure energy sources, will enable integrity in respect of rights hinges
increasingly needed. communities to better monitor their upon building enabling partnerships
territories and share information with to forge innovative solutions that place
Pressures upon Amazonian
neighbors and external partners on a premium on preserved ecosystems
ecosystems, which are critical to
threats and opportunities. and vibrant communities. Amazon
climatic stability and biodiversity,
frequently translate to intimidation Watch’s Power to the Protectors
The value of this program lies not only
and violence against their indigenous program hopes to provide tools that
in helping to support our partners’
stewards. The communities on the further enables this vision, while
work in remote villages, but also in
frontlines of struggles for rights and bringing its emblematic victories to the
demonstrating to a broad audience that
resources are largely remote and world’s attention.
renewable energy and communication
23AMAZON PROTECTORS FUND:
DIRECT SUPPORT FOR
AMAZONIAN INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
Since 2006 Amazon Watch has regularly responded to the urgent needs of our grassroots
partners through our Regranting Program. By channeling small grants assembled through
institutional and private funders, we have consistently responded to timely and strategic requests
from our partners for innovative local initiatives and urgent actions. This year, we formalized this
program into our new Amazon Protectors Fund.
With the Fund, we seek to further AMONG THE SUPPORT WE PROVIDED
expand our regranting process, growing THIS PAST YEAR WE HIGHLIGHT:
our commitment to strengthening the • Brazil - Amazon Watch has a longstanding partnership with Brazil’s
capacity and opportunities of Amazonian Munduruku nation, supporting their successful efforts to stop the
indigenous organizations and local NGOs. São Luiz do Tapajós mega-dam in 2016. This year we supported an
Our partners seek funding for diverse assembly of Munduruku youth with Munduruku chiefs to exchange
experiences, knowledge and traditional medicine, convened in Sawré
projects and activities: legal defense; travel Muybu, an untitled, contested indigenous territory under immense
to relevant advocacy spaces; convening pressures from extractive industries.
indigenous-led workshops and community • Ecuador - After Ecuador’s government refused to make any progress
assemblies; community-led territorial and or commitments in national talks with the indigenous movement,
ecosystem mapping; land titling projects; Amazon Watch provided critical support for indigenous leaders to
organize a 10,000 strong, 200+ mile march from the Amazon to
community-led organizing; communications
Quito. At their historic meeting with President Moreno he committed
initiatives; non-violent direct actions; and to no new oil and gas projects without consultation.
field monitoring of industrial activities and
• Colombia - Continuing Amazon Watch’s 20-year relationship with the
their impacts. With this support, they can U’wa people, we supported a delegation of newly-elected leaders to
continue to defend their collective rights, Bogotá for face-to-face planning with legal allies. The U’wa proposed
rainforest territories, culture and livelihoods. a community workshop to build capacity around their pioneering
indigenous rights case before the Inter-American Commission of
Human Rights.
• Peru - Amazon Watch has channelled regular funding to the Achuar
People of the Pastaza River Basin for defense of their ancestral
territory. We supported activities in favor of their Achuar Life Plan,
strengthening their representative organization (FENAP) and
promoting bilingual education.
24You can also read
