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| tags: | #Amazon Watch, #rainforest, #enviornment, #human rights, #indigenous people |
|---|---|
| located: | Brazil, Colombia, Peru |
| by: | Yair Oded |
The Amazon basin, which spans across over 35 percent of the South American continent, is under attack by governments, corporations, and drug cartels that exploit its natural reserves for their personal benefit.
This results both in brutal human and land rights violations of indigenous populations that inhabit the forests, as well as in the acceleration of global warming, seeing as the Amazon constitutes a critical CO2 absorber and climate regulator.
Thus far, roughly 20 percent of the Amazon has already been deforested, and if deforestation and mining campaigns continue at their current pace, more than 50 percent of the basin could be lost or drastically damaged by 2020.
Environmental defenders - including journalists, activists, and local community members and leaders - face constant attacks across Latin America, as a confluence of governmental, corporate, and organized-crime forces try to shut them up.
Founded in 1996, Amazon Watch is a non-governmental organization working to protect the rainforest and defend the rights of indigenous populations living in the Amazon.
Amazon Watch collaborate with local indigenous and environmental organizations in their campaigns to promote human rights, corporate accountability, climate justice, and the conservation of the Amazon.
One of Amazon’s Watch main areas of focus is halting the destruction of the Amazon by partnering with local groups that challenged deforestation and mining projects of governments and corporations. Since their foundation, Amazon Watch have helped protect millions of acres of rainforest every year.
Another major objective of the organization is to promote “indigenous-led alternative solutions to climate change, natural resources extraction, and industrial development.” Amazon Watch endeavor to empower the leadership of local tribes, particularly the women amongst them, and enable them to independently advance their own eco-friendly development solutions in their native lands.
Additionally, Amazon Watch make it a priority in their work to promote climate justice by acknowledging and uplifting communities that so far experience the brunt of climate change (indigenous people and people of color), support activists who risks their lives, as well as hold bad actors accountable and bring them to justice.
To learn more about Amazon Watch’s work, obtain information about upcoming events, and pledge a donation, please visit their website.
Image credit: Amazon Watch
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