Amazon Indigenous Leaders Press U.N. on Environmental Crime Protocol
More than a dozen Indigenous representatives are urging governments to trace illicit finance and include them in talks on a new environmental crime protocol.
- Starting Monday, Indigenous leaders from the Amazon are attending the United Nations COP13 conference in Vienna to advocate for a new protocol addressing transnational environmental crimes including illegal mining and drug trafficking.
- Galois Flores of the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampis Nation stated that illegal resource extraction and deforestation now constitute a major security crisis for Indigenous communities, with criminal networks possessing weapons and money.
- Global Witness reports at least 105 environmental defenders were killed in Latin America in 2025, accounting for 85% of the 124 global killings, with Colombia recording 39 deaths and Brazil 26.
- Delegates are urging governments to trace illicit financial flows and recognize Indigenous territorial guards, arguing that isolated police operations fail to stop illegal operators who resume work once security forces withdraw.
- Raphael Hoetmer, Western Amazon Program Director at Amazon Watch, emphasized that the United Nations must ensure Indigenous peoples are seriously consulted when negotiating a protocol against environmental crimes.
40 Articles
40 Articles
Criminal networks threaten the Amazon. Indigenous leaders want the U.N. to act
Indigenous leaders from across the Amazon are taking their fight against illegal mining, drug trafficking and deforestation to a United Nations conference in Vienna starting Monday.
Leaders want governments to address the financial networks that hide behind environmental crimes, while giving indigenous peoples a more important role in protecting their ancestral territories and in developing a proposed international agreement
Associated Press News
Criminal networks threaten the Amazon. Indigenous leaders want the UN to act
Indigenous leaders from the Amazon are taking their fight against illegal mining, drug trafficking, and deforestation to a United Nations conference in Vienna next week.
Indigenous leaders in Peru, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador are leading the United Nations to the problem of expanding criminal networks in Amazon, where illegal mining, drug trafficking and clandestine logging threaten communities and ecosystems.
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