The Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, is also the region of classic "earth rights" struggles. In the Amazon, as much as anywhere in the world, the need to protect human rights and to protect the environment go hand in hand. In order to protect "the lungs of the earth," – the vast, exuberant tropical forests of the Amazon – we must respect the rights and ensure the survival of its indigenous people. The survival of the forest and the survival of its native inhabitants are intimately intertwined and the urgent nature of both must be addressed simultaneously and holistically.  As Mario Santi of the indigenous Kichwa people of Ecuador poignantly put it, "Without nature, we don’t exist."

EarthRights International, along with our local partners and collaborators, is working with Amazonian communities in defense of their territorial, cultural, and environmental rights.

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