- Program Environment
- Program Area Transforming Development Finance
- Grant Amount $160,000
- Grant Period September 1, 2003–August 31, 2005
- Location San Francisco, CA, United States
- Geographic Focus Bolivia, Brazil, Peru
About this grant
In remote, fragile and culturally sensitive areas of the Amazon basin, natural resource extraction and infrastructure projects often cause irreversible ecological and social problems. Currently, a number of transportation, energy and extractive industry projects are being planned and implemented, with financing from international financial institutions (IFIs), as part of an integration strategy to link remote, resource-rich areas of the Amazon to regional and international markets. Unfortunately, such projects are likely to significantly increase the environmental problems and social conflicts in the region.Funding will enable Amazon Watch to monitor IFI-financed projects in the Amazon; strengthen the capacity of local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and indigenous organizations to develop strategies to prevent the negative impacts of these projects; and engage IFI and government decisionmakers and people affected by projects in activities to enforce environmental and indigenous peoples IFI policies.Amazon Watch, established in 1996, works with indigenous peoples’ organizations in the Amazon River basin countries to protect the environment and advance human rights in respect to large-scale, industrial development projects.