Defending
the Amazon
Under Threat
Violence, Criminalization, and Inadequate Protection for Defenders of Human Rights, Collective Rights, and the Rights of Nature in the Colombian, Ecuadorian, and Peruvian Amazon
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The Amazon region is facing a structural crisis that threatens both global biodiversity and the fundamental rights of those who live in and protect their territories. In the three countries covered by the report—Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru—defending human, territorial, and environmental rights has become a high-risk activity.
These are not isolated incidents. The crisis stems from a combination of illicit economies, extractive expansion, weak state presence, and an alarming erosion of civic space. In this environment, attacks are used to undermine community governance, fracture the social fabric, and neutralize resistance to powerful economic and criminal interests.
Given the critical gap between the urgency of the threats and the failure of government response mechanisms to address them effectively, Amazon Frontlines implemented a rapid-response mechanism between July 2024 and May 2026 that supported 39 urgent situations of risk.
The organization officially established the Defending Defenders Program in the final quarter of 2024. The documented experience confirms that effective protection cannot be limited to individual physical security measures, which are often technocratic, centralized, and disconnected from the realities of the Amazon. Instead, protection must be understood as a comprehensive, collective process that brings together legal, psychosocial, spiritual, digital, and community dimensions, recognizing that defending rights is, at its core, a form of organizing.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
