The Amazon rainforest is home to one of the world’s most diverse habitats, covering the majority of Northern South America. Although it is the largest rainforest in the Western hemisphere, it is presently threatened by persistent deforestation and mining by mega corporations. The continuation of these processes not only endangers the population of wildlife inhabiting the Amazon, but it also affects the lives of many indigenous tribes that have occupied its forests for centuries. According to the nonprofit organization Amazon Watch, however, such heinous actions by foreign corporations upon the people and wildlife of the Amazon must stop at once. This essay will discuss the work of the nongovernmental organization Amazon Watch, providing information on its mission to protect and restore the environment of the Amazon rainforest. …show more content…
Amazon Watch is active in many campaigns to protect the Amazon. One major example of their work is the campaign to “Keep the Oil in the Ground”, an active campaign which calls for mega corporations such as Chevron, British Petroleum (BP), Petro China, and many other oil companies to stop their drilling activities in the Amazon. Amazon Watch’s article, entitled “Keep the Oil in the Ground”, puts the critical need to protect the Amazon in perspective, stating, “The Amazon houses one-third of the earth's plant and animal species, produces a fifth of the world's freshwater and plays a critical role in regulating our global climate as it produces oxygen and absorbs carbon, and drives global weather patterns (Amazon Watch, 2015).” Although the value of the Amazon to our world is apparent, such facts are overlooked or simply ignored by the oil corporations that continue to drill in the