Amazon Watch: Keeping an Eye on the World's Largest Tropical Rainforest

Covering an area larger than the continental United States, the Amazon is the largest and most biodiverse tropical rainforest on the planet. Home to a third of the world's plant and animal species and hundreds of distinct ethnic groups, the Amazon rainforest is at great risk – nearly half could be lost or severely degraded by the year 2020 due to deforestation. Seeking to defend the rainforest as well as the indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin, Atossa Soltani founded non-profit organization Amazon Watch in 1996. Working together with indigenous and environmental groups, Amazon Watch campaigns for corporate accountability, human rights, and the preservation of the Amazon's ecological systems.

Through long-term partnerships with indigenous communities and environmental organizations, Amazon Watch helps them protect their rainforest territories and advocate for their rights. Amazon Watch gives indigenous peoples opportunities to communicate directly to decision makers and the worldwide public, including CNN viewers, corporate boardrooms, and United Nations delegates. The organization also provides audio-visual documentation, political advocacy, legal rights, media outreach, and equipment like video cameras and laptops.

 In addition to advancing indigenous rights, Amazon Watch stops dirty energy projects, demanding corporate accountability and advocating clean energy alternatives. Recently, the organization helped thwart ConocoPhillips' and Burlington Resources' plans to drill for oil in the Achuar, Kichwa, and Shuar territories in Northern Peru and Southern Ecuador; pressured Occidental Petroleum to end drilling on sacred U'wa land in Colombia and Achuar territory in Peru; and supported the Achuar people in their resistance against Pluspetrol, which agreed to stop dumping one million barrels of toxic waste in their region.

In 2009, Amazon Watch partnered with Amazonian indigenous federations to equip them with the tools they need to advocate for their right in climate protection projects and climate negotiations. Currently, Amazon Watch is working to stop the building of Brazil's Belo Monte Dam and coordinating international pressure for Chevron to clean up Ecuador, among others.