Illegal trade networks threaten Indigenous peoples in Amazon: report

The expansion of illicit economies across the Amazon have entrenched systems of “criminal governance”, according to a report by Amazon Watch. These undermine Indigenous rights, territorial control and environmental stability.

The Amazon covers around 7.8 million square kilometres and is home to more than 2.2 million Indigenous people. However, criminal groups were found to be operating in at least 67 per cent of municipalities and deforestation, exceeding 88 million hectares since 1985, the researchers stated. The combined pressures of illicit economies and inadequate policy responses posed escalating risks to both Indigenous survival and the region’s ecological future, they said.

Released on the sidelines of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the report examined how illegal gold mining, drug trafficking and related activities had evolved into interconnected systems operating across national borders and global markets. The authors argued that these dynamics had reshaped local power structures and security conditions across Amazonian countries.

The report showed that criminal networks had progressively displaced or weakened both state institutions and Indigenous governance systems. In their place, they imposed regimes of control marked by surveillance, coercion and economic dependency.

"Criminal networks restrict access to natural resources, pressure or co-opt leadership, sabotage land titling processes, and force communities to reorganize daily life under regimes of fear, surveillance, and dependency," the authors of the report noted.

The results were drawn from studies on communities such as the Munduruku (Brazil); Siona, Kichwa, Inga, Murui, and Cofán (Colombia); Kichwa of Napo (Ecuador); and Kakataibo and Wampis (Peru).

Beyond security concerns, the report highlighted wide-ranging social and ecological consequences. It found that illicit economies had driven displacement, contaminated ecosystems and created serious public health risks, including mercury exposure from illegal mining that exceeded World Health Organization standards. These impacts, the report added, had eroded food sovereignty and disrupted cultural and knowledge systems central to Indigenous life.

The authors noted that the effects were unevenly distributed, with women, children, cross-border populations and Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation or initial contact facing heightened vulnerability. Armed groups, they added, had recruited children, trafficked women and girls, and perpetrated sexual violence in affected regions.

Drawing on testimonies shared by more than 60 Indigenous leaders at a gathering in Pucallpa, Peru, the report documented how communities experienced these pressures as violations of their rights to health, autonomy and a healthy environment.

While acknowledging the need for state intervention, the report criticised governments for prioritising militarised and securitised responses. Such approaches, it argued, had failed to address the structural drivers of illicit economies and, in some cases, had exacerbated risks faced by Indigenous communities.

Instead, the authors called for rights-based and intercultural strategies that recognised Indigenous governance systems. In several areas, communities had already strengthened their own mechanisms of territorial protection, including community guards and environmental monitoring networks.

The authors also urged international action. They called on institutions such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and states party to the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime to formally recognise the threat posed by illicit economies to Indigenous territories and to support stronger participation of Indigenous peoples in decision-making processes.

Among their recommendations was the creation of an international protocol on environmental crimes that would address their transnational nature and links to global supply chains.