Indigenous leaders from across the Amazon basin are bringing their fight against illegal mining, drug trafficking, and deforestation to the United Nations in Vienna this week. More than a dozen representatives from Peru, Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador are participating in the Oct. 19-23 U.N. conference on transnational organized crime, known as COP13, seeking to classify environmental destruction as a security crisis rather than solely an ecological issue.
The delegates are urging governments to target the financial networks behind these crimes and to secure a formal role for Indigenous peoples in shaping a proposed international agreement. The conference brings together nations working under a U.N. treaty to combat transnational organized crime, with negotiations expected to consider a new protocol addressing illegal mining, logging, and wildlife trafficking.
What the Right Is Saying
While the source material focuses heavily on the Indigenous and NGO perspective, the conservative or right-leaning framework in this context is represented by the status quo of state sovereignty and traditional law enforcement models favored by many national governments. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) noted its work with Indigenous communities, pointing to a project in Brazil that helps communities monitor illegal gold mining and work more closely with authorities. UNODC spokesperson Alejandra Silva highlighted that this project has helped lay the groundwork for a national system to detect and respond to environmental crimes.
However, the UNODC did not confirm whether Indigenous representatives would have a formal role in negotiating the proposed protocol, reflecting a traditional diplomatic stance that prioritizes state-led negotiations over direct participation by non-state actors. The perspective aligns with arguments that existing national legal frameworks and international treaties on organized crime are sufficient if properly enforced, rather than requiring new protocols that might complicate sovereignty or business regulations.
The emphasis on working "more closely with authorities" suggests a preference for integrating Indigenous monitoring into existing state security architectures rather than empowering autonomous Indigenous governance structures as primary law enforcement entities. This approach maintains the central role of the nation-state in defining and combating crime, a principle often upheld by conservative policymakers who are wary of expanding supranational regulatory powers.
What the Left Is Saying
Progressive advocates and Indigenous representatives argue that current government responses, which rely heavily on military operations and short-term raids, fail to address the underlying economic drivers of environmental crime. Galois Flores, a representative of Peru's Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampis Nation, stated that deforestation and pollution are now "a crisis of transnational organized crime and security," not just environmental problems.
Raphael Hoetmer, Western Amazon Program Director at Amazon Watch, criticized the reliance on military tactics, noting that such operations can leave Indigenous communities caught in the violence without solving the root causes. Flores and other leaders are calling for environmental crimes to be treated with the same legal seriousness as drug and arms trafficking, including mechanisms to trace illicit financial flows and disrupt markets for illegally mined gold.
The Kakataibo people in Peru's central Amazon have faced particular violence, with six community leaders killed since 2020 due to illegal coca plantations and processing laboratories established by traffickers in ancestral forests. Marcelo Odicio, president of the Federation of Native Kakataibo Communities, urged governments to formally recognize Indigenous territorial guards and provide protection for threatened leaders, arguing that isolated police operations are insufficient as illegal operators often return once security forces withdraw.
In Brazil, Ashaninka leader Francisco Piyako Apiwtxa described how inadequate government protection has left communities to confront criminal groups directly. He recounted an incident in July where at least five heavily armed, masked men entered an Ashaninka community, threatening families and searching for Indigenous leaders. "Our territories, our homes, our waters, the future of our children are at stake," Piyako said, emphasizing the need for community-led territorial protection and a greater voice in international negotiations.
What the Numbers Show
According to Global Witness, at least 105 land and environmental defenders were killed in Latin America in 2025. This figure accounts for 85% of the 124 killings documented worldwide during the same period. Colombia recorded the highest number of killings in the region with 39, followed by Brazil with 26.
In Peru, the Wampis Nation has established two monitoring posts, each staffed by 14 Indigenous guards, to confront illegal mining. Despite these efforts, leaders report that criminal networks possess access to weapons, significant financial resources, and the ability to intimidate communities. In the Kakataibo territory, six leaders have been killed since 2020, while community representatives routinely face threats.
The Vienna conference, COP13, runs from October 19 to 23, 2026. It operates under the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. The proposed protocol under discussion would specifically address environmental crimes including illegal mining, logging, and wildlife trafficking. Mercury contamination from gold mining is identified as a primary vector for poisoning rivers used for fishing and drinking water in affected regions.
The Bottom Line
The outcome of COP13 will determine whether environmental destruction in the Amazon is legally categorized as a transnational organized crime, potentially unlocking new financial tracking and enforcement mechanisms. Delegates are pushing for a protocol that includes mandatory consultation with Indigenous peoples, a move that could shift the balance of power in resource management negotiations.
The UNODC has not yet confirmed if Indigenous representatives will have a formal voting or negotiating role in the protocol's development. If the new agreement is adopted, it could require signatory nations to implement stricter regulations on the financial flows associated with illegal extraction, moving beyond traditional military interventions. Stakeholders will be watching to see if the language of the protocol includes specific protections for Indigenous territorial guards and mechanisms for cross-border cooperation against criminal networks that exploit jurisdictional gaps in the Amazon basin.