In the context of the UN conference on Transnational Crime, this seminar will explore how organized crime has become a principal threat against the Amazon and the rights of indigenous peoples, and as such a major obstacle to climate justice. Drug trafficking networks, illegal gold mining, biodiversity and human trafficking and illegal logging are affecting some of the most biodiverse areas of the world, using increasing levels of violence.

We will dialogue with Miguel Guimaraes, the vice-president of Perú national amazonian indigenous organization Aidesep, Herlín Odicio, a Kakataibo leader under threat of criminal economies, and Raphael Hoetmer, director of the Western Amazon Program at Amazon Watch. They will share, how criminal economies operate, and how indigenous peoples respond to this existential threat.

Facilitation: Anna Preiser, Department of Political Science and Latin America Research Network