A critical element to our End Amazon Crude campaign is to challenge and cut off international financing for oil extraction in the Amazon.

Last week, Amazon Watch staff accompanied a delegation of Indigenous leaders from the Peruvian Amazon to New York City to confront major U.S. banks Goldman Sachs, Citi, and JPMorgan Chase. The delegation sought to urge these financial institutions to cease financial support for Petroperú.

Petroperú is seeking funding for controversial oil expansion efforts in the Amazon and the northern coast of Peru, starkly contradicting the global scientific mandate to halt oil exploration, which directly threatens Indigenous peoples. Petroperú is reeling financially, but Indigenous people want it to know that there is no future for oil extraction in the Peruvian Amazon.

There is nothing more powerful than hearing directly from those most affected by oil extraction. Even more so when they are the elected leaders representing Indigenous nationalities with thousands of years of history stewarding some of the most biodiverse and important biospheres on Earth.

The delegation made their position crystal clear to bank executives: “We will not permit new oil extraction. Ever.”