Indigenous peoples of the Amazon Basin, where pervasive resource extraction has accelerated the spread of COVID-19, are calling for the nine Amazonian countries to apply a moratorium on extractive activities to stop the “ecocide, ethnicide and terricide,” as was declared at the first World Assembly for the Amazon in July 2020. Indigenous communities are the first line of defense for the Amazon rainforest, and we all depend on their efforts to protect it. In Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, French Guyana and Suriname, Indigenous nations are working together to confront an immense array of threats caused by unconstrained extraction in their territories— toxic contamination, raging fires, loss of territory and biodiversity, climate change, and, now, infection.
The fight for a moratorium on extraction will not be won from the top down; Indigenous peoples can’t wait for governments to mandate an end to all extraction on their lands. Instead, Indigenous communities are launching and winning unprecedented campaigns to guard their rights and territories, amounting to millions of acres of Amazon rainforest saved and our global climate protected. You can see the power of the Indigenous movement in recent groundbreaking wins across the world— from the victory at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline to the Waorani victory against oil drilling in the Pastaza region of Ecuador. However, governments and corporations are continuing to exploit the world’s resources at alarming rates with great risk to Indigenous peoples.
Help us win an Amazon-wide moratorium on extraction from the ground up, brick by brick, until the governments of the region are forced to heed the wisdom of Indigenous peoples and usher in a new era rooted in their vision for a safer, healthier, and more sustainable world.
Justice for Indigenous CommunitiesImpacted by Ecuador’s Oil Spill
Justice for Indigenous Communities Impacted by Ecuador’s Oil Spill
A call for a moratorium on all extraction in the Amazon