Amazon In Focus SUMMER 2020 - Amazon Watch
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Amazon In Focus SUMMER 2020
OUR MISSION & VISION CONTENTS
Our Mission Message from our Executive Director............................ 1
Amazon Watch is a nonprofit organization founded in Responding to the Amazon in Crisis.............................. 2
1996 to protect the rainforest and advance the rights of Amazon Defenders Fund.............................................................. 3
Indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin. We partner with
A Light Against the Rising Darkness in Brazil......................... 6
Indigenous and environmental organizations in campaigns
for human rights, corporate accountability and the Guardians of Life............................................................................ 8
preservation of the Amazon’s ecological systems. There is Still Time to Protect
the Sacred Headwaters of the Amazon..................................10
Our Vision Follow the Money to Stop Rainforest Destruction...............12
We envision a world where the collective rights of The Achuar’s Last Stand in Peru..............................................14
Indigenous peoples and the rights of nature are respected
and where healthy forests, biodiversity, and the global Artists for Amazonia....................................................................16
climate are fully protected by governments, corporations Amazon Watch Team..................................................................17
and civil society.
We strive for a movement of global solidarity rooted in
interconnectedness and practices of decolonization
to respect the rights of Indigenous peoples and to
permanently protect the Amazon rainforest which is OUR WORK
perilously close to a tipping point of ecological collapse.
We believe that Indigenous self-determination is a critical Stop Amazon Destruction
component of any successful conservation strategy for Amazon Watch resists the destruction of the Amazon by
the Amazon, and see that Indigenous knowledge, cultures challenging disastrous development projects and resource
and traditional practices contribute greatly to sustainable extraction and by promoting Indigenous rights.
and equitable stewardship of Mother Earth.
We seek solutions that will lead to the transformation of Advance Indigenous Solutions
our economic, financial and political governance systems Amazon Watch supports and promotes Indigenous-led
to ones that are life-affirming and regenerative. alternative solutions to climate change, natural resource
extraction, and industrial development.
We commit, in the spirit of partnership and mutual
respect, to support Indigenous, forest, and traditional
peoples in their efforts to protect life, land, and culture Support Climate Justice
in accordance with their aspirations and needs, by Amazon Watch joins with the climate justice movement
advocating for true solutions that respect the principles of to address the fact that the most vulnerable—especially
climate justice. Indigenous peoples and people of color—bear the brunt of
environmental destruction, corporate greed, and climate
change, and are often excluded from top-down solutions.
Photos (front cover): Getty Images (Top)
Amazon Watch/Lucas Silva (Bottom)
MESSAGE FROM OUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Dear Friends of Amazon Watch,
Thank you for your support of our critical work to protect and restore the Amazon rainforest, advance
Indigenous-led solutions and demand climate justice! Our work has always been important, but considering
the current crises facing the Amazon, its forest guardians and all of humanity, it’s more critical than ever to
unite to stop the destruction and defend the defenders.
The Amazon and our global climate are in crisis. Following rampant deforestation and fires that ravaged the
Amazon rainforest last year, the Amazon is now facing a tipping point of ecological collapse. The Amazon
is also facing a humanitarian crisis with the COVID-19 pandemic that is spreading exponentially across the
region, with the potential of ethnocide of Indigenous peoples if immediate and ongoing action is not taken.
While the challenges may seem daunting, we still have time to shift from “tipping point to turning point”
for the Amazon, the global climate and all of humanity.
Photo: Rucha Chitnis At Amazon Watch, we have and are taking immediate action by responding to the calls and demands of
Indigenous peoples across the Amazon to respect rights, lives and territories that are increasingly threatened by land-grabbers, extractive
activities, agribusiness expansion, governments, corporations, international financiers, and now the COVID-19 pandemic.
With increased capacity and resources over the last year, we have expanded direct support and coordination with partners on the
ground across the Amazon—including legal and communications capacity—and distribution of over $1 million in rapid response grants
to support women defenders, stop fires and prevent COVID-19. We have also expanded our global advocacy and communication
campaigns in coordination with Indigenous and international allies, including over 250 organizations who signed a global call for an
immediate moratorium on all extractive activities in the Amazon. And, we are building a Pan-Amazon Alliance and launching global
initiatives in solidarity with Indigenous peoples including the Amazon Emergency Fund and Artists for Amazonia.
In unity, we are building a global movement to act for the Amazon, Indigenous rights and climate justice. Our movement is intersectional
and is rooted in principles and practices of solidarity, equity, justice, anti-racism and decolonization. Our movement recognizes that the
systems that violate human rights also violate Mother Earth and need to be transformed. This is a turning point for humanity to come
together to resist systems of oppression and exploitation and uplift visionary solutions to protect and restore the balance of nature and
human rights.
Thank you for standing with us during these challenging, but transformative times. Your support means solidarity with Indigenous peoples
at a time when the world desperately needs their wisdom, guidance and solutions to restore the balance of nature and respect for
humanity and all life.
With deep gratitude for your support,
Leila Salazar-López
Executive Director
1
Photo: Victor Moriyama / Greenpeace
RESPONDING TO THE AMAZON IN CRISIS
The Amazon is in crisis. It has been for through the Amazon Defenders all extractive activities like mining, oil,
some time. For nearly a quarter century, Fund. These grants responded to the and logging, industrial agriculture,
Amazon Watch has sounded the alarm fires, supported Indigenous women’s and all religious proselytization.
that the forest and its Indigenous leadership, provided life-saving
inhabitants are at extreme risk, and thus resources for the COVID-19 outbreak • Expanded our field staff teams
the future of our fragile planet. This has and funded vital community support on the ground in Brazil, Ecuador
been our purpose as an organization since projects including food sovereignty and Peru all while drastically reducing
1996. For years, the plight of the Amazon and protection for Earth Defenders. our own operating costs.
was not known or talked about on a global
• Co-launched and seed funded the And this is just the beginning.
scale. But in August of 2019, all of this
changed. Last summer, the world reacted first-ever Amazon Emergency
This is how movements gain and maintain
to the news of the fires that swept across Fund (AEF), a pan-Amazon
momentum. This is how you capture the
the Amazon in a way it never had before. initiative providing swift and
moment of a movement and invite the world
The world became aware and took action. immediate funding to Indigenous
to design a new and better future together.
Now, there is no looking back. organizations. This fund works to
stave off the spread of COVID-19 This is not short-term work. This is
What began as a movement led by and provide emergency assistance to long-term work with short-term wins. To
Indigenous peoples of the Amazon has communities in dire need. truly address the ongoing destruction of
become a movement global in force, reach the Amazon rainforest and the potential
and scope. • Co-launched Artists for Amazonia
ethnocide of Indigenous peoples, we must
featuring artists and activists
continue to respond rapidly and also co-
As a result of your support, Amazon throughout the world. This online
create systemic change.
Watch stepped up even more boldly, experience captured millions of
powerfully, and unapologetically to advance viewers throughout the world and Creating system change means
Indigenous rights and solutions and protect raised critical funds for the Amazon. understanding that the fires that claimed
the rainforest. over 11 million hectares of forest in Brazil
• Formed an international network
and Bolivia were not seasonal wildfires,
Among our achievements: of solidarity with Indigenous peoples
but the result of arson set by those
across the Amazon of more than 250
spurred by Bolsonaro to plunder the
• Regranted more than $1 million organizations to amplify the demands
Amazon for commodities. Stoking racism
to more than 100 Indigenous-led and of Indigenous groups, including a call
towards Indigenous peoples led to over
traditional groups across the Amazon for an immediate moratorium on
9,000 fires being deliberately set on their
2
lands. Preventing the next fires means Added to the challenges of fire and expansion of deforestation and resource
stopping the attacks, advancing the rights destructive climate change practices extraction has never been greater. Our
of Indigenous communities in resistance, is the COVID-19 pandemic. This could work in solidarity and partnership has
and ending the deforestation that leads to mean ethnocide for the Amazon's always been the most effective and just
the increase in fires. Indigenous peoples. The global pandemic approach to these issues, and—thanks
puts their lives in even more danger as to you—that call has now risen above the
Behind Bolsonaro and the ruralistas of governments fail to appropriately address din. Your support today and in the future
Brazil are international financiers, banks, the crisis. Amazon Watch together with days and months is critical to ensuring
and corporations. That’s why we also our allies takes daily action to help prevent the survival of Indigenous peoples and
co-lead global campaigns targeting the spread of COVID-19 and to support the preservation of the Amazon rainforest.
these companies and demanding those communities where the virus has This work cannot be done without you.
change. Those who profit from rainforest taken hold.
destruction - the real forces behind the Together we are the hope for this
deforestation - like BlackRock will no Support for Indigenous peoples and movement and the answer to the crisis
longer escape the spotlight. communities confronting the pandemic, that confronts all of us.
horrific fires, genocidal attacks and
AMAZON
DEFENDERS FUND
The Amazon Defenders Fund (ADF) is
the solidarity grantmaking fund at Amazon
Watch dedicated to supporting Indigenous-
led organizations in their quest to defend
and protect the Amazon rainforest, advance
solutions to deforestation, fires, floods,
land grabbing, repression, violence and
all threats to Indigenous sovereignty and
autonomy. ADF supports initiatives which
dismantle existing patriarchal systems of
power and privilege to advance the voices Photo: Conselho Terena Archives
and leadership of Indigenous women, girls
and gender non-confirming individuals. partners across the Amazon. More than two community-led territorial and ecosystem
hundred distinctive grants were distributed mapping; land titling projects; critical
The need for ADF has never been swiftly and quickly in response to the fires in communications initiatives; non-violent
more urgent. In the past year alone, Bolivia and Brazil, the devastating outbreak direct actions; and field monitoring of
Indigenous communities in the Amazon of COVID-19, and in support of urgent industrial activities and their impacts.
have confronted unprecedented levels humanitarian and political mobilizations led
of deforestation, violent attacks, fires that by Indigenous communities. ADF exists to support Indigenous peoples’
have devastated the living forest, oil spills, rights to pursue and exercise their collective
flooding and political uprising. ADF remains resolute in rapidly responding rights, culture, and livelihoods. Your support
to immediate, life-threatening needs, as of ADF is a profound act of solidarity,
In response to these staggering events, in well as to projects that support legal turning turmoil into transformation.
the last year alone ADF granted more than defense; pan-Amazon advocacy collectives;
$1 million to Indigenous and community Indigenous-led workshops and assemblies;
3
COLOMBIA
TYPES OF GRANTS:
INDIGENOUS
NATIONALITIES:
ECUADOR
Kichwa Wampis
FIRE RESPONSE COVID-19 RELIEF Sapara Asháninka
Cofan Cacataibo
AMAZ O N Aid in Response to Fires Emergency Health Supplies
U’wa Awajún
B A S I N Protective Equipment Oxygen Concentrators
BRAZIL Indigenous Firefighting Food Distribution Achuar Guajajara
Indigenous Forest Guardians Advocacy for Healthcare Munduruku Suruí
PERU Improvements
Food Distribution Kayapó Guarani
Kaiowá
Shipibo-
Konibo Tikuna
Ka’apor Maró
Yawanawá
BOLIVIA
MORE THAN
$1 MILLION COMMUNITY INDIGENOUS
SUPPORT WOMEN
GRANTED IN
Protection and Well-being Aid Development & Training
1 YEAR for Earth Defenders at Risk
Mobilization
Solar & Communications
Advocacy
OVER Travel for National and
International Meetings Assemblies
200 GRANTS
Food Sovereignty
TO MORE THAN
Community Mobilization
100 GROUPS Communications: Internet,
ACROSS THE REGION Radio, Computers, Video
Production
Human Rights Monitoring
AVG. GRANT $5000
4 5
Photo: Culture Hack Labs
A LIGHT AGAINST To observe Brazil today is to watch a from grassroots to global levels.
country that once offered the promise In doing so they offer us hope and
THE RISING of social and environmental progress, inspiration and remind us that their
enter a dystopian free fall. Even before fight for the future of Brazil’s forests
DARKNESS IN the pandemic, we were witnessing and forest peoples is also our own.
BRAZIL many hard-fought gains for the
Many of us became aware of the
Amazon and Indigenous peoples under
By Christian Poirier crisis in the Brazilian Amazon with
threat. Bolsonaro's Brazil, with its
persistent erosion of human rights and the advent of last year’s fires, as the
democratic norms, spikes in violence, world awoke to dramatic images of
and environmental destruction, the rainforest burning out of control.
exposes one of our planet's most The fires were not an isolated
distressing crises: the rise of fascism. phenomenon. This tragedy is better
The situation urges us to act decisively, understood as a manifestation of the
to support those resisting this criminality, impunity, and violence
abominable regime and to take action that has exploded since Bolsonaro
from wherever we are from. took power. Indigenous peoples and
traditional communities of the Amazon
In contrast to the darkness spreading have been sounding the alarm about
in Brazil, the country’s Indigenous risks to the rainforest for years and
movement is channeling its centuries- resisting its destruction – sometimes
long struggle for survival and self- at the cost of their own lives. As our
determination into an effective partner Alessandra Munduruku puts
counterweight against the Bolsonaro it: “All this attention on the Amazon
regime by waging effective activism, was awakened by the images of fires
6
in the trees. But we, the Indigenous
peoples, have been shouting about it
since much earlier.”
The fires raging in the Brazilian
Amazon are as much political as they
are physical. Bolsonaro relentlessly
attacks Brazil’s Indigenous minority
precisely because their ancestral
lands offer boundless opportunities
to the powerful economic interests
that brought him to power. His regime
continues to churn out reckless plans
to legislate the stripping of Indigenous
peoples’ constitutional rights to
land and self-determination to make
way for mining, agribusiness, and that the Indigenous movement’s financiers of Amazon destruction
devastating infrastructure like dams. efforts pit them against dominant and including major private banks like
ruthless forces. And it could ultimately France’s BNP Paribas and asset
What our partner Sônia Guajajara of fail without local and global solidarity, managers like BlackRock. These
the Association of Brazil’s Indigenous with dire consequences for us all. findings have helped raise awareness
Peoples (APIB) terms “institutional of the forces that underpin Brazil’s
genocide” Bolsonaro calls his Amazon Watch is standing with crisis while channeling public action
“dream.” To this, she responds: “Your MNI and APIB’s efforts to resist toward institutions that could make
'dream', Bolsonaro, is our nightmare Bolsonaro, uphold and restore vital or break Bolsonaro’s agenda. Our
and our extermination because mining human rights and environmental strategy has not only proven timely
brings death, illness, and misery and it protections, and target the economic but also adaptable to countering
destroys the future of our children…. and political forces that enable the emerging threats, such as the
The blood that runs in our bodies actors behind the crisis. To reverse expansion of industrial mining on
is formed through struggle and today’s disastrous trends, we need Indigenous lands.
resistance, and we will not let our to look beyond the criminals in
nightmare come true.” the Brazilian government and their In 2020, we are redoubling our
henchmen on the ground. This is why solidarity efforts with our Brazilian
Sônia helps to lead the National Amazon Watch leverages the global partners while convening and catalyzing
Indigenous Mobilization (MNI), markets that sustain their behavior a global movement towards corporate
a leading force among Brazil’s and provides a bridge between and political accountability. Indigenous
resistance movements. MNI’s ability their influential actors and Brazil’s peoples are the first and last line of
to swiftly and effectively respond to grassroots movements. defense between the future of the
Bolsonaro’s attacks by organizing forest and its irreversible destruction.
direct actions, legal challenges, Our Complicity in Destruction Together, with global upswell of
political pressure campaigns, and II report, released last year in support, we will not let the forces of
high-profile media have deterred the partnership with APIB, exposed disorder unleashed by Bolsonaro's
worst rollbacks. However, it is clear dozens of international corporate fascist regime go unchallenged.
7
GUARDIANS OF LIFE The film engaged millions of people around the world to take action for the Amazon:
The film is calling on the world shocked by last summer’s fires to stand in solidarity • News stories garnered over 8 million views
with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon who are the best protectors and • Shared online over 200,000 times
defenders of the Amazon rainforest. Only when Indigenous peoples and territories • 872,000 likes on Instagram
are protected can the Amazon rainforest thrive.
Also starring Adria Arjona from Good Omens and Game of Thrones star Oona
“Guardians of Life” is a short film in collaboration with Amazon Watch, Extinction Chaplin. The film was produced by Nation Earth, Amazon Watch, Extinction
Rebellion, and writer and director Shaun Monson, which centers on the near-critical Rebellion and Mobilize Earth with support from Artists for Amazonia, the Climate
stage of the climate crisis the planet is facing. Save Movement and the Environmental Media Association.
The video features Academy Award winner Joaquin Phoenix and also stars Watch the film at amazonwatch.org/guardiansoflife
Q’orianka Kilcher, Rosario Dawson, Matthew Modine, and Albert Hammond Jr.
8 9
THERE IS STILL At a time when the world needs to be
racing to protect the Amazon, new
others. Their efforts have stopped
extraction and bolstered Indigenous
TIME TO PROTECT threats in the headwaters of the mighty rights throughout the region and
Amazon River in Ecuador and Peru beyond. From their communities in
THE SACRED puts this area, known as the Amazon the rainforest to the streets of the
HEADWATERS OF Sacred Headwaters, in great peril. urban cities of Quito and Lima, and
in dialogue with state governments,
THE AMAZON The Sacred Headwaters in the Indigenous peoples in the Sacred
Upper Amazon is the birthplace Headwaters region continue to
By Kevin Koenig of the Amazon river. Spanning 30 adamantly express their opposition to
million hectares in Ecuador and any new oil drilling.
Peru, this area is home to nearly
500,000 Indigenous peoples from But a renewed push by Ecuador
20 nationalities, including peoples and Peru to expand extraction and
in voluntary isolation. It is the most auction new oil blocks in this area
biodiverse terrestrial ecosystem on threatens Indigenous peoples and their
the planet, and it represents both the Amazonian territories. In response,
hope and the despair of our times. Indigenous nations are joining together
in a new initiative, led by the regional
This rainforest region remains largely Amazonian Indigenous confederations
free of industrial extraction due to of both countries, CONFENIAE and
the successful efforts of Indigenous AIDESEP respectively, calling for
peoples to protect and defend an immediate moratorium on new
their territories. Here, Indigenous extraction and exploration, while
peoples have stopped industrial pursuing a just transition away from
waterways, dams, roads, and drilling fossil fuel dependency, to post-
plans by companies including petroleum economies that elevate
Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ARCO, Indigenous solutions and respect
Andes Petroleum, ENI, Petrobras, their rights and autonomy. Amazon
CGC, and Talisman Energy, among Watch is proud to be working
10alongside Indigenous nationalities to A Huge Climate Opportunity China, California, Chile,
realize this big vision, and is joined Major Businesses and
by Pachamama Alliance, Fundación Ecuador and Peru’s plan to greatly
Pachamama, and Stand.earth. expand oil production comes at a time Finance Institutions All
of climate crisis. The science is clear: Connected to the Problem
the world must begin a rapid phase
Oil Expansion in the Last out of fossil fuel production, and keep A massive portion of the existing and
Place on Earth it Should oil in the ground. expanded crude oil production is
being used to pay off billions in loans
Happen The oil industry is a major driver of to China — a country with a stated
Ecuador has announced plans deforestation in the western Amazon, ambition to advance an ecological
to leave the Organization of the both directly and through the carving society. Over 50% of the crude oil
Petroleum Exporting Countries out of new roads that facilitate access from the Western Amazon goes to
(OPEC) by 2020 to boost production to other extractive industries like California refineries — much of it
and has reformed its hydrocarbon agribusiness and mining. Expanding used to fill up the gas tanks of one
contract structure to attract new oil production and looking for new of the most progressive regions on
investment. Peru hopes to pass crude reserves underneath standing the planet. Chinese and international
hydrocarbon reform in 2020 to forests that help mitigate climate banks and finance institutions are
expedite drilling. change by sequestering carbon, funding the build-out of oil drilling
will greatly exacerbate climate in the region and major brands are
But the Amazon biome is on the disruption. A new report by the UN fueling their fleets with the spoils.
brink. Scientists warn that we are at Environmental Program and leading
the tipping point of no return, where researchers revealed a gap between
the lush, tropical Amazon rainforest new oil production and country Still Time: An Indigenous-
could go through a process of climate commitments. It found Led Bi-National
‘savannahfication.’ Drilling for new fossil governments are planning to produce Conservation Vision
fuels in the most biodiverse rainforest 50% more oil, gas, and coal by 2030
on the planet – that regulates essential than is consistent with the Paris Fortunately, there is still time to
hydrologic and carbon cycles – is a Agreement, a dangerous discrepancy protect this critical area and there is
recipe for disaster. that threatens climate stability. Drilling an Indigenous-led conservation effort
in the Amazon Sacred Headwaters underway that is a true model for our
New and ongoing oil extraction also will only generate less than two time. Similar to a Green New Deal,
threatens the very livelihood and months of the world’s oil supply, but the Amazon Sacred Headwaters
cultures of Indigenous peoples, some will cause irreparable damage locally Initiative seeks to usher in a new era
of whom live in voluntary isolation. For and globally. of clean, renewable energy, reduce
them, oil production and deforestation fossil fuel dependence, and create
are existential threats to their survival Keeping 5 billion barrels in the a just transition for the economies
as a people. region underground is equivalent to of their countries that supports the
avoiding over 2 billion metric tons Indigenous solutions that have helped
The threats that oil extraction poses of CO2 emissions, and maintaining protect this area for millennia.
to Indigenous peoples, biodiversity, the integrity of the living forest is
and standing forests in the Sacred equivalent to 4 billion metric tons of
Headwaters region should make carbon. This collectively represents
leaving fossil fuels in the ground here the equivalent energy use of 200
a planetary priority. million U.S. homes for 10 years.
11FOLLOW THE When the Amazon fires brought
worldwide attention to the climate
Environmental activists across the
country and around the world are
MONEY TO STOP crisis last summer, Amazon Watch utilizing Amazon Watch’s reports to
was able to shine a spotlight on the further their fight against the financial
RAINFOREST critical role that big finance plays institutions that are backing the
DESTRUCTION in supporting such destruction. In
several key reports, titled Complicity
climate emergency. Amazon Watch
also played a strategic role in two of
By Moira Birss and in Destruction, Investing in Amazon the most significant initiatives in the
Pendle Marshall-Hallmark Destruction, and most recently, movement to end the financing of
Investing in Amazon Crude, Amazon climate destruction: the BlackRock’s
Watch research unveiled the ways Big Problem campaign and the Stop
that major international financiers the Money Pipeline coalition.
are directly funding the companies
most responsible for deforestation BlackRock’s Big Problem is a
and oil extraction in both the western campaign specifically calling on
Amazon (in Ecuador, Peru, and BlackRock—the world’s largest asset
Colombia) and the eastern Amazon manager with over $7.4 trillion USD
(Brazil). The latest report, published in assets under management and
in March, not only lays out in detail the world’s largest investor in fossil
the links between major finance fuels—to divest its assets from all
and crude oil extraction but also fossil fuel and deforestation-risk
highlights the organized resistance commodity companies. Amazon
that such projects currently face from Watch collaborated with allies from
Indigenous peoples in the region. the Sunrise Project, the Sierra Club,
Friends of the Earth, and others to
12publicly launch the campaign in the
Fall of 2018. Since then, the initiative
has gained traction and important
attention. In early 2020, BlackRock’s
CEO Larry Fink announced that
the asset manager would be taking
companies that make more than
25% of their revenue from coal out
of its active funds; that it would
offer ESG (environmental, social
and governance) funds as part of its
flagship investment fund offerings;
that it would use its position as a financial sector: asset management, also demanding that the government
majority shareholder in several of the banking, and insurance. Just as step in to regulate the risk fossil fuel
companies it invests in to call for more activists are targeting BlackRock for investments are posing to our climate
environmentally sustainable business its role in investing in the climate crisis, and communities. On January 10th,
practices; and that it would keep a Stop the Money Pipeline participants activists in DC launched the Stop
closer eye on how the agribusiness are also targeting J.P. Morgan Chase— the Money Pipeline during a “Fire
companies it’s invested in may be the largest bank in the United States Drill Fridays” action, accompanied
causing deforestation. Though these and the largest private funder of fossil by environmentalist leaders and
commitments are by no means fuels in the world. Since the Paris celebrities like Bill McKibben, Annie
sufficient to end the BlackRock’s Big Agreement, Chase has dumped more Leonard, Jane Fonda, and Joaquin
Problem campaign, Amazon Watch than $269 billion into new fossil fuel Phoenix. On February 13, activists
and our allies will continue to keep projects. Bowing to pressure from all over the country participated in an
public attention and pressure on the Stop the Money Pipeline coalition intergenerational day of divestment
the Wall Street giant for its role in and groups like the Rainforest Action action, with students on college
financing the climate crisis. In taking Network, the Sierra Club, and the campuses targeting universities to
these initial steps, BlackRock is Gwich'in Steering Committee, Chase divest their endowments from fossil
showing signs it may become a leader announced plans in February 2020 to fuels, and retired people targeting
in the U.S. finance industry and could stop advising and lending to the coal state pension funds to do the same.
set an important standard for other mining industry, and to stop funding Actions continue to escalate into the
asset management companies to new oil and gas drilling projects in spring, with a major mobilization called
follow going forward. the Arctic. Stop the Money Pipeline Fossil Fuel Divestment Day that took
activists are also targeting Liberty place online on April 23rd, 2020 and
Amazon Watch is also a leader in the Mutual, a top global insurer of coal, oil a “People’s Assembly On BlackRock”
Stop the Money Pipeline coalition. and gas. This mobilization builds off of organized for the week of its annual
Formed in November of 2019, Stop ongoing fossil fuel divestment efforts shareholder’s meeting in May.
the Money Pipeline is a diverse that are focused on pension funds,
collection of groups calling for an university endowments, and other Eliminating the support of these major
end to the financing of environmental private funds. financiers will stop the fossil fuel and
destruction and brings together deforestation commodity companies
existing campaigns (among them Over the past few months, Stop the that are driving climate destruction.
BlackRock’s Big Problem) targeting Money Pipeline has been turning up Together with our allies, Amazon
the worst offenders in each part of the the heat on all of these targets, while Watch is committed to doing just that.
13THE ACHUAR’S Last year, eight Achuar and Wampis
Indigenous leaders faced the CEO
in Calgary, and now to GeoPark’s
Santiago, Chile. Amazon Watch,
LAST STAND IN of the oil company GeoPark and told alongside Peruvian and international
him repeatedly to leave their territory. allies, was there to accompany them
PERU Nothing swayed their resolve - not on their journeys for justice.
By Andrew Miller the charm offensive, or the claims of
non-negotiable legal responsibilities, The latest struggle began in 2014,
or the pleas to hear more about when GeoPark first signed contracts
their concerns. The Indigenous with the Peruvian government. Since
communities have spoken - then the unrelenting resistance of
innumerable times - and the collective the Achuar has frustrated GeoPark’s
decision to keep their territories free efforts to start pumping oil. After
of fossil fuel development is final. a year of withering criticisms, the
company was forced to withdraw its
GeoPark’s 2019 annual general environmental impact study, which
meeting was not the first corporate otherwise would have required
shareholder meeting crashed by approval by government regulators
Achuar leaders. Over the years, to initiate construction of the
successive oil companies have signed mega-project. A nascent alliance
contracts to drill in the oil concession with the powerful Wampis Nation
known as Block 64. The Achuar has strengthened the influence of
brought their message of protecting Indigenous communities opposing
the Amazon to Oxy’s meeting in Los the destruction of their forests and
Angeles, then Talisman’s meetings waterways.
14In the face of these effective
grassroots strategies, GeoPark
attempted to bolster its international
image by collaborating with a
project called "Amazon Best Social
and Environmental Management
Practices" (Amazon BMP). This
$23.5 million initiative - financed
by the US Agency for International
Development - was seen by oil
companies as a way to demonstrate
they were doing the right thing and
garner public legitimacy, even when
they lacked the consent of local
communities. Upon learning that
GeoPark had arranged a “social Amerisur Resources, a UK-based Of course, Indigenous communities
baseline study” to be carried out oil company, that had embroiled themselves run the greatest risks.
specifically in Block 64, we informed itself in a conflict with Indigenous Divide-and-conquer strategies
the Achuar and Wampis who in turn communities of Putumayo. The Siona continue to weaken their social
sent a notification to USAID that such community of Buenavista, that has cohesion and cultural identity. Oil
a study would not be permitted. long-fought against Amerisur, has contamination violates their rights
warned GeoPark that, “the business to food security, health, and a clean
GeoPark’s gambit unraveled quickly, acquisition includes the obligations environment. And in the ongoing
bringing down the whole initiative. and liabilities for serious violations of Colombian armed conflict, community
Communities in Colombia and Brazil human rights, socio-environmental leaders who speak up for their rights
similarly denounced plans that the damages and other impacts pending put their own lives at risk.
Amazon BMP initiative had to support restitution for the Siona people that
controversial projects. Simultaneously, were caused by Amerisur.” Amazon Watch has supported the
a coalition of organizations generated Achuar of the Pastaza for more than
pressure on USAID from crucial The risks for GeoPark - and their 15 years. They continue to be crucial
Congressional offices in both the investors - are multiplying. Not partners, as we strengthen our work
U.S. House and Senate. Given the only are they facing multiple social in the Sacred Headwaters region
grassroots outcry from Indigenous conflicts in several countries, but they alongside other organizations and
communities and top-down scrutiny also face the prospect of a united Indigenous federations. The growing
from Congress, USAID terminated front of Indigenous communities alliances between the Achuar and
Amazon BMP at the end of 2019, internationally denouncing the their Wampis neighbors in Peru, their
four years earlier than planned. company’s intentions to operate sister Achuar communities across
where they have no social license the border in Ecuador, and into other
Despite the failure of their to do so. Amazon Watch presents countries like Colombia are a source
greenwashing attempts, GeoPark GeoPark as a case study in the kinds of inspiration and hope. It is crucial
has worked to secure further oil of investments that large institutions that together we support them until
concessions in the Colombian should not be making, as part of the threat of oil activities and other
Amazon. In December they the broader complex of extractive unwanted incursions in their territory
announced their intention to purchase corporations driving the climate crisis. is long gone.
15ARTISTS FOR
AMAZONIA
Since Amazon Watch began its
campaigns in 1996, we have allied
with many artists to help draw
greater attention to the situation
in the Amazon and our work to
advance Indigenous rights. People
such as Cary Elwes, Ed Begley,
Jr., Daryl Hannah, Martin Sheen,
James Cameron, and Honorary
Board member Peter Coyote have
lent their talents and energy to our
work many times over the years. In
the fall of 2019, due to the global
attention brought on from the crisis
of the fires in Brazil and Bolivia,
Amazon Watch was contacted by
many influencers and allies seeking
to lend their support. In response
we greatly expanded this program
and formally introduced the Artists
for Amazonia campaign. This effort is
harnessing the power of creative and
entertainment influencers to mobilize
global action in response to the
In direct response to COVID-19 The livestream event was titled,
crisis in the Amazon and threats to
threats to Indigenous peoples in Artists United for Amazonia:
Indigenous earth defenders.
the Amazon, Artists for Amazonia Protecting the Protectors, and
Artists for Amazonia supports stepped up to produce live online featured musical performances,
movement-building and collaboration events in May and June to benefit entertainment influencers, Indigenous
from high-profile celebrities like the Amazon Emergency Fund. The leaders, activists, scientists, and
Barbra Streisand, Sting, and Peter Amazon Emergency Fund is an conservation advocates. The event
Indigenous-led fundraising campaign engaged hundreds of thousands
Gabriel, to scientist leaders like Dr.
providing rapid response grants to of people world-wide and raised
Jane Goodall. This campaign allows
Indigenous communities threatened hundreds of thousands of dollars for
us to band together to generate
by the pandemic. It's designed to the Amazon Emergency Fund.
quick and effective action to protect
mobilize funds quickly and directly
the rainforest and Indigenous rights into the hands of communities
in this time of extreme climate crisis across the Amazon to address a full
and pandemic. spectrum of needs.
16Since 1996, Amazon Watch has
protected the rainforest and
advanced the rights of Indigenous
peoples in the Amazon Basin.
We partner with Indigenous and
environmental organizations in
campaigns for human rights,
corporate accountability, and the
preservation of the Amazon's
ecological systems.
Photo: Amazon Watch/Lucas Silva
AMAZON WATCH TEAM
Board of Directors
Atossa Soltani (Founder and Board President) Peter Coyote (Honorary Board Member)
Michelle Chan (Chair) Kenneth Greenstein
Andrew Beath Antonia Juhasz
Jade Begay Ahmed Rahim
Adeline Cassin (Secretary) Richard Wegman (Treasurer and Vice-Chair)
U.S. Staff & International Team
Leila Salazar-López, Executive Director Pendle Marshall-Hallmark, Climate Campaigner
Paul Paz y Miño, Associate Director Angela Martínez, Amazon Defenders Fund Manager
Christian Poirier, Program Director Carlos Mazabanda, Ecuador Field Coordinator
Joseph Kolb, Controller Andrew Miller, Advocacy Director
Kathy LeMay, Director of Philanthropy Vladimir Pinto, Peru Field Coordinator
Moira Birss, Climate and Finance Director Ada Recinos, Communications Manager
João Coimbra Sousa, Brazil Legal Advisor Camila Rossi, Brazil Communications Advisor
Mariola Fernandez, Executive Assistant/Board Liaison Katherine Rothschild, Development Associate
Airton Gasparini, Brazil Field Coordinator Elena Maria Teare, Communications Associate
Sofía Jarrín Hidalgo, Ecuador Advocacy Advisor Ana Paula Vargas, Brazil Program Manager
Kevin Koenig, Climate and Energy Director Michael Zap, Web Manager
Sarah Koplowicz, Admin/Database Associate
17"In times of pandemic, giving is an "Support provided served to "It is only through support like this
act of humanity and love. In this reinforce our community territorial from Amazon Watch that we can
sense, we Indigenous people of Rio monitors who are controlling the mitigate the impacts caused by the
Grande do Norte, thank Amazon border with Ecuador in order to absence of the State to fight the
Watch for providing us with one avoid transmission of COVID19 coronavirus, deforestation, fires
of the essential elements of life: among our Wampis communities and to strengthen our bases with
food. The donation destined for us within our ancestral territories of protection."
has given us dignity and hope that, Kankaim and Kanus." Dinaman Tuxá, Bahia, Brazil - Executive Coordinator
together, we will overcome this Wrays Perez, Pamuk (President) of the Wampis
APIB, legal advisor of APOINME
chaos that plagues our country." Nation, northern Peruvian Amazon
Dioclécio Potyguara, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.
MAIN OFFICE WASHINGTON, DC
520 3rd Street, Suite 108 1101 15th Street, NW, 11th Floor Protecting the rainforest and our climate
Oakland, CA 94607 Washington, DC 20005 by supporting Indigenous peoples
T: 510.281.9020 T: 202.423.4828
F: 510.281.9021 amazonwatch.orgYou can also read
