We Must Stop the New Oil Concessions Threatening Ecuador’s Rainforests and Indigenous Communities The Pachamama Alliance has been working for years as an instrumental partner of the Achuar and other indigenous communities to help them protect their lands and culture.
This time around, we need to ramp up for our most ambitious campaign ever.

Make Your Donation Now

Spread the word:

I'm asking for your participation, your help, and your donation for one of the most important campaigns we've ever launched

The Achuar people and five other tribes in the Amazon are completely committed to stopping any incursion in their pristine home. Yet, their government has opened up this territory for oil exploration. Help the Achuar and other indigenous people protect these territories not just for themselves, but for you and I and all future generations. Please make a donation now »

“This is not just about one battle in one corner of the Amazon. This is about drawing a line in the sand for indigenous people and rainforests everywhere. It’s about rejecting a bankrupt development model and about ensuring that indigenous peoples’ choices for their lands and their future are honored and respected.”
- Bill Twist, CEO of The Pachamama Alliance

A Donation of $50, $100, $500 or More Will Help Us Ramp Up Our Efforts Immediately in 2012

Our work for this campaign will include:

• Launching a public relations campaign in the United States and in Ecuador
• Designing and coordinating a series of workshops for the affected indigenous communities that inform them of their rights and aid them in forming a united voice of opposition
• Mounting legal challenges where appropriate under Ecuadorian and international law
• Developing an international campaign of solidarity 

Can't Donate Now? Receive Our Email Updates to Track the Progress of Our Campaign:

Prevent a Disaster in the Amazon Rainforest with a Gift

Our allies in Ecuador have reported to us that the Ecuadorean government is in advanced negotiations to open five million acres of pristine rainforest in the south central Amazon basin for new oil development in early 2012.

We’re working with our indigenous partners on a strategy to resist this new threat. Below, you’ll find more complete details on the situation in Ecuador, what we can do about it, and an opportunity to contribute to this effort.

Five Million Acres at Risk for New Oil Development in 2012

The five million acres of pristine rainforest now at risk is land that we’ve partnered with indigenous peoples to successfully defend for 15 years with the support of our global community, and in spite of intense pressure from an array of international oil companies.

Home to six different indigenous nations who have not been informed nor given their consent, the land in question is sandwiched between two of the largest ecological and human rights disasters in recent history.

An Historic Human Rights and Environmental Disaster in the Making

100 miles away, in Ecuador’s northern Amazon, oil exploitation conducted by Chevron/Texaco and Ecuador’s state-owned oil company devastated the ecology and indigenous societies of the rainforest.

Now the focus of the largest environmental lawsuits in history, Chevron was ordered by a U.S. court earlier this year to pay $17 billion in damages, but the struggle for justice continues.

To the south, just across the border into Peru, oil development by Occidental Petroleum Company reaching back 30 years devastated another stretch of pristine rainforest and its indigenous people, sparking another high-stakes lawsuit.

The health of the rainforest – the “lungs” of our planet – is crucial for all life around the world. Yet if these five million acres are given over to oil development, the land and its people will likely suffer the same fate as the neighboring sites, jeopardizing the clean air, healing plants, and ancestral wisdom that benefits the entire human family.

Who Benefits from this Development?

The Ecuadorian government claims that expanding oil development into this area will bring economic benefit for all Ecuadorians, yet the latest oil concessions have demarcated new oil blocks within indigenous territories without the knowledge or consent of these peoples.

Outside petroleum interests have already been working to influence and divide indigenous communities. The Ecuadorian government has made it more difficult for the indigenous people to organize and rally and speak out against the oil development plans for their lands. A kind of insanity, caused by the blindness and greed of an outdated development model, is ruling here. It must be stopped.

Awaken the World to this Potential Tragedy

Stand in solidarity with the indigenous people. Join us in supporting the “Selva Viviente" (Living Forest) campaign in Ecuador and around the world.

Tell everyone about what’s going on in Ecuador. From the gym to your blog, take every opportunity to talk or write about it. Subscribe to our email updates, join us on Facebook and Twitter, and we’ll keep you current with everything that’s happening in Ecuador.

Stand with Our Indigenous Partners Today

Most importantly, we ask you to put your financial resources behind this effort. By making a gift, you will:

• Train and organize indigenous communities to assert their collective rights;
• Educate the general public in Ecuador and the U.S. about this potential tragedy;
• Expand our educational work to shift and transform the modern worldview that is driving the destruction in the rainforest.