LISTEN to our 4-part series, “AMAZON RAINFOREST DEFENDERS.”
We are honored to share this 4-part series called Amazon Defenders. We begin Part One in the Western Amazon to understand how activists are confronting the dirty legacy of oil extraction, stopping the expansion of new oil leases, and protecting the rainforest biodiversity.
In Part Two, we investigate the story of a US lawyer named Steven Donziger who represented Ecuadorian communities demanding justice from Chevron-Texaco for one of the largest-ever oil disasters. Chevron refused to pay and turned Mr. Donziger into a corporate political prisoner.
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In Part Three, we explore how the implications of deforestation, fires, and COVID are affecting Brazil and the Eastern Amazon region.
And finally, in Part Four we will speak to Indigenous rights activists on how they are creating a model of resistance and international solidarity to build solutions-based alternatives and protect cultural survival.
The Amazon Basin is home to half of the world’s tropical forests, with 33% of all plant and animal biodiversity thriving in impenetrable wildernesses. We explore how Amazonian communities are collaborating with a global network of environmental and legal advocates to counter human rights abuses and environmental devastation that threaten the future of the world’s largest rainforest and its peoples, and with it, the fate of our climate.
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Amazon Rainforest Defenders Episodes:
- Amazon Defenders Part One: Protecting Biodiversity from Big Oil
- Amazon Defenders Part Two: Criminalizing Activism – The Steven Donziger Case
- Amazon Defenders Part Three: Fires, Corruption, and Resistance in Brazil
Host/EJR Producer: Jessica Aldridge
Associate Producer: Emilia Barrosse
Executive EJR Producer: Jack Eidt
Engineer: Blake Lampkin
Social Media/Graphics: Stephanie Lemus
Amazon Defenders Part One: Protecting Biodiversity from Big Oil – Ep. 82
We present Part One of our special Four-Part series on “Rise of the Amazon Defenders,” beginning in the Western Amazon to understand how activists are confronting the dirty legacy of oil extraction, stopping the expansion of new oil leases, and protecting the rainforest biodiversity.
Paul Paz y Miño, Associate Director of Amazon Watch, provides an overview of the rich significance of the Amazon, expands upon what is happening in the Western Region and the connection to California, and speaks to the growing resistance protecting the rainforest and the rights of Indigenous peoples. Hosted by Jessica Aldridge. READ MORE…
Amazon Defenders Part Two: Criminalizing Activism – The Steven Donziger Case – Ep. 84
In Part Two of our special Four-Part series on “Rise of the Amazon Defenders,” we investigate the story of New York based attorney Steven Donziger [donzigerdefense.com] who represented Ecuadorian communities demanding justice from Chevron-Texaco for one of the largest-ever oil disasters. In an historic judgement, Chevron was found liable by Ecuadorian courts and ordered to pay $9.5 billion.
Chevron says it will never pay. Instead, they have turned our guest Steven Donziger into a corporate political prisoner, placed under house arrest, bankrupt, disbarred. We look into how Chevron, supported by US federal judges, is using retaliatory attacks against Mr. Donziger and the Ecuadorian Peoples, and how their actions set a dangerous precedent and represent a growing and serious threat to the ability of civil society to hold corporations accountable for their misdeeds around the world. READ MORE…
Amazon Defenders Part Three: Fires, Corruption, and Resistance in the Brazilian Amazon – Ep. 86
In Part 3 of “The Amazon Defenders,” we focus on the Eastern Amazon and the Brazilian Rainforest where the issues of deforestation, road development, forest fires, cattle ranching, land invasion, soy farming, mining, and COVID-19 are impacting the health and viability of the rainforest and its peoples. We hear about the vital stewardship by an Indigenous-led movement for human and environmental rights, and efforts to demand accountability for the six US-based financial institutions funding the destruction.
Ana Paula Vargas, who goes by Paula, has been advocating for more than 20 years with communications and culture, human rights, and social justice in Brazil. As Program Manager at Amazon Watch, she has collaborated with international institutions to support and promote projects from popular associations, social movements, and grassroots organizations. READ MORE…
Updated 3 February 2021