This ecosystem is gravely threatened and increasingly close to a possible point of collapse due to multiple pressures that alter its ecological balance. These include deforestation caused by agribusiness, logging, the expansion of the extractive frontier, mega-infrastructure projects, river pollution, illegal hunting, illegal mining, the invasion of Indigenous lands, and the forced displacement of local communities.

One of the main drivers of these destructive dynamics is the fossil fuel industry. Scientific evidence shows that the burning of fossil fuels — coal, oil, and gas — is the main cause of the global warming observed since the mid-20th century.

Today, the Amazon represents one of the world’s main frontiers for the expansion of oil and gas exploration and extraction, with active projects in Brazil, Suriname, Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru. Nearly one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas reserves discovered between 2022 and 2024 are located in the Amazon and its coastal regions.

Oil blocks occupy 9.4% of the Amazon’s surface area, and the region went from holding 327 crude oil blocks in 2012 to 369 in 2020, representing a 13% increase.

By the end of 2025, Brazil, which contains approximately 60% of the Amazon, authorized new exploration for deepwater drilling off the Amazon coast. Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador have also promoted new hydrocarbon exploration and extraction activities in their Amazonian territories.

The expansion of the fossil fuel frontier in the Amazon continues to be supported by public and private financing mechanisms, including subsidies, budget transfers, tax exemptions, credit guarantees, and insurance schemes. According to Stand.earth’s 2024 report, the five main financiers of oil and gas drilling in the Amazon are Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Itaú Unibanco, Santander, and Bank of America.

In the face of this alarming situation, communities, Indigenous Peoples, social movements, and environmental organizations have multiplied their efforts to halt the advance of the extractive frontier.

From the initiative to keep oil underground in Yasuní, to the advances promoted by Colombia on energy transition and the protection of Indigenous territories, the ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on climate change and human rights, and the recent advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the obligations of States regarding climate change, these processes reveal a growing international convergence around the need to overcome fossil fuel dependence and strengthen the protection of Amazonian ecosystems.

The International Rights of Nature Tribunal has already analyzed and expressed concern over the situation of the Amazon on multiple occasions, including the international hearings in Quito, Lima, Paris, Bonn, and Toronto, as well as during its regional sessions in Chile and Europe.

During its hearing in Glasgow, the Tribunal also decided to send a delegation to the Amazonian territory to learn firsthand about the realities and impacts caused by extractivism.

It was declared:

“Faced with this panorama, we do not give up. We resist, we struggle, we dream, and above all, we build. We build Fossil Fuel Free Territories as a concrete way to halt the expansion of extractivism and open pathways toward other possible worlds (…). At the same time, we affirm that we do not only resist: we also propose. Living alternatives already exist in our territories, based on community economies, agroecology, and energy systems managed by the peoples themselves. These are pathways that prioritize life, social justice, and balance with Nature above the accumulation of capital.”

As a concrete expression of these threats, and of the resistance emerging from the territories, the Tribunal will hear the following representative cases from different countries across the Amazon Basin.

In continuity with the Declaration of the Rights of the Amazon, adopted during the XI Pan-Amazonian Social Forum, and with the New Commitment with Mother Nature proclaimed in Belém, Brazil, on the road to COP30, the Tribunal coordinated efforts during the First International Conference for a Just Transition Beyond Fossil Fuels, held in Santa Marta, Colombia.

In this context, the Tribunal accompanied various initiatives promoted by social movements, environmental organizations, and civil society organizations, including the Conference on Fossil Fuel Free Territories. This space brought together Indigenous Peoples, organizations, collectives, and representatives of territories affected by oil extraction in the Amazon to strengthen coordination and build common strategies for action.