Indigenous leaders seek UN action on Amazon criminal networks

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 18 Oct, 14:31 · Archive

Indigenous leaders from Peru, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador are attending a UN conference in Vienna to demand action against illegal mining, drug trafficking and deforestation.

Indigenous leaders from across the Amazon are attending a United Nations conference on transnational organized crime in Vienna starting on 19 October to demand action against illegal mining, drug trafficking and deforestation. More than a dozen Indigenous representatives from Peru, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador are participating in the conference, known as COP13. The leaders want governments to tackle the financial networks behind environmental crimes whilst giving Indigenous peoples a greater role in protecting their ancestral territories and shaping a proposed international agreement.

Illegal gold mining, logging and drug trafficking are putting growing pressure on Indigenous communities. Mercury from gold mining is contaminating rivers used for fishing and drinking water, according to Galois Flores, a representative of Peru's Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampis Nation. Criminal networks have access to weapons, money and the ability to intimidate communities, Flores told the Associated Press.

Those resisting criminal groups face threats and violence. The Wampis have established two monitoring posts, each staffed by 14 Indigenous guards, to confront illegal mining. In Peru's central Amazon, drug traffickers have established illegal coca plantations and processing laboratories in ancestral forests. Marcelo Odicio, president of the Federation of Native Kakataibo Communities, said six Kakataibo leaders have been killed since 2020, whilst community representatives routinely face threats.

How it is being reported

• Criminal networks threaten the Amazon. Indigenous leaders want the UN to actIndigenous leaders from the Amazon are taking their fight against illegal mining, drug trafficking, and deforestation to a United Nations conference in Vienna next week.Clickorlando · 18 Oct, 14:02
• Criminal networks threaten the Amazon. Indigenous leaders want the UN to actIndigenous leaders from the Amazon are taking their fight against illegal mining, drug trafficking, and deforestation to a United Nations conference in Vienna next week.News4Jax · 18 Oct, 14:02

In this story: Peru · Brazil · Colombia · Ecuador · Wampis Nation · Kakataibo · United Nations · Vienna

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