One Hallidie Plaza, Suite 402
San Francisco, CA 94102
www.amazonwatch.org
Staff size: 9
2005 Annual budget: $513,000
IRS Annual Report: http://dynamodata.fdncenter.org/990_pdf_archive/954/954604782/954604782_200512_990.pdf
Amazon Watch works to defend the environment and the people of the Amazon Basin against ecologically destructive industrial development. Large-scale infrastructure projects such as oil and gas pipelines, power lines, roads and dams threaten the indigenous peoples who depend on the forests for their physical and cultural survival. They bring habitat destruction and degradation, toxic pollution and large-scale deforestation, which threaten the indigenous peoples who depend on the forests for their physical and cultural survival. Amazon Watch’s advocacy and activism has won protections for indigenous land rights, protection of ecologically sensitive areas and deterred North American investments in infrastructure projects.
Amazon Watch works to empower indigenous people by providing them with digital cameras, satellite phones and computers, as well as on-site training, to help them effectively convey their story to the media and the international community.
In 2003, Amazon Watch was one of the leading organizations campaigning against the Camisea Gas Project in the Peruvian Amazon. Amazon Watch’s actions prevented the approval of a $213 million loan from the Export-Import Bank of the United States, which would have allowed Camisea to continue its destruction of Peruvian rainforest and drill inside the Nahua-Kugapakori Reserve – home of uncontacted and isolated indigenous populations.
For over a decade, Amazon Watch has also been a strong supporter of Columbia’s U’wa people and their fight against corporate encroachment. In 2002, the U’wa forced Occidental Petroleum to withdraw from an oil field on their indigenous land. Amazon Watch continues to support the U’wa people, especially as they struggle to block the state firm Ecopetrol from exploring the area.
Amazon Watch conducts cutting-edge research to inform people and governments about the social and environmental impacts of infrastructure mega-projects. The group provides financial, technical, logistical and campaigning support to 34 grassroots organizations in seven Amazonian countries.