Indigenous leaders from across the Amazon are heading to Vienna with a warning that illegal mining, logging and drug trafficking are increasingly connected, threatening communities, forests and rivers across national borders. Their push comes as governments prepare for a major United Nations conference that could shape the international response to environmental crime.

The 13th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC COP13) runs from October 19 to 23, 2026, at the Vienna International Centre. At the centre of the debate is a proposed international protocol on crimes that affect the environment — and whether Indigenous Peoples will have a meaningful voice in shaping it.

Why Amazon Indigenous Leaders Are Demanding International Action

Delegates from Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru are calling on governments to recognise the connections between environmental destruction and transnational organised crime. Their concerns extend beyond individual illegal activities to the criminal networks, illicit financial flows and cross-border markets that allow them to continue.

For communities across the Amazon, the consequences are immediate. Illegal gold mining, logging, drug trafficking and other illicit activities can place pressure on ancestral territories while exposing people who defend their land to threats and violence.

Galois Flores, vice president of the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampis Nation in Peru, has described these activities as interconnected pressures on Indigenous territories. The Wampis have established Indigenous monitoring posts to confront illegal mining, but community members involved in territorial protection also face threats from criminal groups.

Ahead of COP13, Flores called for any proposed environmental-crime protocol to address the safety of people defending their territories.

“A protocol on crimes that affect the environment must also protect those who defend the land. If negotiations begin, the process must guarantee the participation of Indigenous peoples, and their Free, Prior, and Informed consent to the territorial responses that states implement against the expansion of illicit economies in the Amazon.”

His statement captures two central demands being taken to Vienna: stronger action against environmental crime and meaningful Indigenous participation in decisions that affect Indigenous lands.

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Drug Trafficking and Illegal Mining Put Indigenous Communities at Risk

The Wampis are not the only Indigenous community reporting pressure from criminal networks. Across the Amazon, leaders have described threats linked to illegal plantations, processing facilities, mining operations and routes used to move illicit goods.

Peru: Kakataibo leaders report killings and threats

Marcelo Odicio, president of the Federation of Native Kakataibo Communities in Peru, has said drug traffickers have established illegal coca plantations and processing laboratories in ancestral forests.

Indigenous leaders have also reported continuing threats against community representatives. Odicio has said that six Kakataibo leaders have been killed since 2020, highlighting the risks faced by people defending their communities and territories.

The reports illustrate how the expansion of illicit economies can affect Indigenous Peoples beyond the immediate environmental damage associated with illegal activity.

Brazil: Ashaninka community faces reported armed threats

In Brazil, Ashaninka leader Francisco Da Silva Piyako has described pressure from illegal logging, drug trafficking and roads used to transport illicit goods.

According to Piyako, at least five heavily armed and masked men entered an Ashaninka community in July, threatening families and looking for Indigenous leaders.

The incident underscores the security concerns raised by Indigenous representatives as they seek stronger international cooperation against criminal networks.

Piyako described what was at stake for the communities affected:

“Our territories, our homes, our waters, the future of our children are at stake,”

The statement was reported by the Associated Press.

Colombia: Illegal mining creates risks beyond the mine itself

In Colombia’s southern Putumayo region, Indigenous leader Ingry Mojinajisoy has described a shift in criminal activity. Armed groups that previously relied on drug trafficking are increasingly moving into illegal mining, she said.

The effects can extend well beyond the areas where mining takes place. Pollution can travel downstream and contaminate rivers and fish on which Indigenous communities rely, meaning that environmental damage can cross territorial boundaries.

Together, these accounts form part of the case Indigenous leaders are presenting in Vienna: criminal activities affecting the Amazon are interconnected, and their consequences can spread across communities and borders.

Global Witness Reports 124 Environmental Defender Killings in 2025

The concerns raised ahead of COP13 come amid continuing violence against people defending land and natural resources.

Global Witness reported in September that at least 124 land and environmental defenders were killed worldwide in 2025. Colombia accounted for 39 documented killings, while Brazil recorded 26. Together, the two countries represented 52% of the global total.

Latin America accounted for 85% of the killings documented worldwide. More than three-quarters of the victims globally were small-scale farmers, Indigenous Peoples or Afro-descendant Peoples. Indigenous Peoples accounted for 44 of the documented killings.

The organisation also identified connections between violence and disputes over land and natural resources.

Global Witness finding	Reported figure
Land and environmental defenders killed worldwide in 2025	At least 124
Killings documented in Colombia	39
Killings documented in Brazil	26
Share of global killings recorded in Colombia and Brazil combined	52%
Share of global killings recorded in Latin America	85%
Indigenous victims among documented killings	44
Killings associated with mining and extractive industries	11
Killings linked to logging interests	8
Killings linked to agribusiness	6

Global Witness found that land disputes were associated with more than half of the killings documented in 2025. More than a third of the killings were allegedly linked to organised crime and hitmen.

These findings add context to Indigenous representatives’ demands for stronger protection. Their argument is that environmental crime cannot be addressed effectively without considering the violence, territorial disputes and criminal economies associated with it.

UNTOC COP13 Could Open the Door to a New Environmental-Crime Protocol

The central question at the Vienna conference is whether governments will move towards opening negotiations on a proposed fourth protocol under the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

The proposed instrument would address crimes that affect the environment. Areas under discussion include wildlife and timber trafficking, illegal mining and trafficking in minerals and precious metals, and waste trafficking.

The protocol has not yet been adopted. COP13 discussions concern whether negotiations should begin, while the scope and obligations of any eventual agreement would depend on the decisions and negotiations of participating UN member states.

If governments ultimately negotiate and adopt the proposed instrument, it would become a fourth protocol under UNTOC.

The distinction matters because the conference is not itself the final adoption of a new environmental-crime agreement. Instead, its discussions could determine whether the process advances towards negotiations and how international cooperation develops.

UNODC research highlights connections between criminal activities

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has increasingly examined environmental crime through the lens of organised crime and illicit financial activity.

Its research has documented how illegal mining can overlap with drug trafficking and other criminal enterprises in the Amazon Basin.

A recent UNODC analysis of minerals crime reported links between drug trafficking and illegal gold mining in the Brazilian Amazon. It also described cases in which gold mining was investigated as a mechanism for laundering proceeds from drug trafficking.

UNODC has documented wider consequences of illegal mining, including deforestation, soil degradation, mercury contamination and damage to Indigenous territories and livelihoods.

These findings support the broader concern being raised in Vienna: environmental destruction may be connected to criminal systems involving trafficking, corruption, money laundering and illicit markets rather than a single isolated offence.

Indigenous Leaders Want Governments to Target Illicit Financial Flows

For Indigenous representatives and their supporters, stronger enforcement is only part of the response. They also want governments to examine how illegal activities generate, move and conceal money.

Flores has argued that environmental crimes should receive the same level of seriousness as other major forms of transnational organised crime. This includes tracing illicit financial flows and disrupting markets for illegally mined gold.

Amazon Watch, which is coordinating the Indigenous delegation, has called for a binding UNTOC protocol to address gaps in international law and strengthen efforts to trace illicit money and supply chains.

Raphael Hoetmer, Western Amazon Program Director at Amazon Watch, said:

“Illegal gold and drug networks are ravaging the Amazon, government responses rely on militarization that endangers local populations, and are seriously compromised by corruption and complicity. Real security requires backing Indigenous land rights and community protection. Safeguarding Indigenous defenders is our strongest defense against environmental crime, and they must not be left to fight it alone.”

The organisation argues that military operations and raids alone cannot resolve the underlying economic systems that make illegal extraction profitable.

Its position places Indigenous land rights and community protection alongside financial investigations and efforts to disrupt criminal supply chains as elements of a broader response.

Indigenous Communities Are Already Protecting Amazon Territories

The delegation is also highlighting protection measures developed by Indigenous communities themselves.

The Wampis Nation has established an Indigenous Guard to protect its territory from illegal gold mining. In the Brazil-Peru border region, Indigenous communities have also developed cross-border protection initiatives in response to drug trafficking.

UNODC has separately documented community-based monitoring initiatives in the Brazilian Amazon.

In one pilot project, Indigenous communities were equipped with GPS-enabled cameras to document illegal logging. Evidence collected by a surveillance team in the Maró Indigenous Territory was presented to Brazil’s environmental authorities, contributing to enforcement action against logging concessions.

These examples are central to the argument that Indigenous territorial governance can complement state law enforcement. Community monitoring can help document illegal activity and bring evidence to the authorities, while territorial protection initiatives can support responses to threats that cross borders.

Indigenous representatives therefore want recognition of territorial guards and stronger safeguards for community leaders and environmental defenders.

Indigenous Participation in Future UN Negotiations Remains Unresolved

UNODC has said it works with Indigenous communities across Latin America on organised crime and environmental threats. Its work includes efforts to strengthen community monitoring and cooperation with authorities, alongside research into the connections between environmental crimes, criminal groups and illicit financial flows.

However, the formal role Indigenous representatives will have in negotiations over a possible new UNTOC protocol remains unresolved.

Amazon Watch and Indigenous representatives are calling for meaningful participation throughout the process, including respect for Indigenous rights and Free, Prior, and Informed Consent where state responses affect Indigenous territories.

A series of events surrounding COP13 will bring Indigenous leaders, environmental organisations, researchers and government representatives together to discuss organised crime and the Amazon, energy-transition minerals, Indigenous participation in security policy and the proposed environmental-crime protocol.

For the delegation, participation is not simply about being present at international meetings. The concern is whether the people directly affected by environmental crime will have a meaningful role in shaping policies and territorial responses.

Why the Vienna Conference Matters for the Amazon

The discussions at COP13 come as governments increasingly examine environmental destruction within the wider framework of transnational organised crime.

Illegal gold mining can generate profits that move through international markets. Drug-trafficking organisations can diversify into mining and other illicit activities, while illegal logging and wildlife trafficking can cross national borders. Pollution and environmental damage can also spread beyond the location where criminal activity occurs.

UNODC research has documented this convergence in the Amazon Basin, where criminal groups have been associated with drug trafficking, illegal mining, logging and other activities.

Indigenous communities are particularly exposed because their territories and livelihoods are directly connected to forests, rivers and other natural resources. The threats described by leaders from Peru, Brazil and Colombia show why they want international security policy to account for both criminal networks and the people defending their territories.

The proposed UNTOC protocol could become an important part of international cooperation against environmental crime, but its future remains uncertain. Governments must still determine whether negotiations will proceed, which crimes would fall within the final instrument’s scope and what obligations an eventual agreement would create.

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Conclusion

As UNTOC COP13 begins in Vienna on October 19, Indigenous leaders from Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru are pressing governments to treat environmental crime as a cross-border organised-crime challenge — and to protect the communities confronting it.

Their demands include stronger action against illicit financial flows, safer conditions for environmental defenders, recognition of Indigenous territorial protection and meaningful participation in any negotiations over a new UN protocol.

The conference’s outcome could help shape the next stage of international cooperation against criminal networks involved in environmental destruction. For the Indigenous delegation, however, the central message is already clear: protecting the Amazon cannot be separated from protecting the people who govern and defend large parts of it.

As Flores put it in remarks reported by the Associated Press:

“We do not want to leave future generations rivers poisoned with mercury, destroyed forests and communities controlled by criminal violence.”

The conference is scheduled to continue through October 23 at the Vienna International Centre. Whether governments move towards negotiations on the proposed protocol remains to be determined.

Source Disclaimer

This article has been prepared based on research into the sources listed below, including United Nations and UNODC material, Global Witness research, Amazon Watch statements and Associated Press reporting. It reflects the information available in those sources and preserves the distinction between reported accounts, attributed claims, documented findings and proposals that have not yet been adopted. It does not imply independent verification beyond the material provided.

Sources

• United Nations — UNTOC COP13 conference information
• UNODC — Crimes that affect the environment
• UNODC — Minerals crime and illegal mining research
• UNODC — Illegal mining and trafficking in metals and minerals
• UNODC — Environmental crime and community-based forest protection
• Global Witness — 124 land and environmental defenders killed in 2025
• Amazon Watch — Amazon Indigenous leaders head to Vienna for UNTOC COP13
• Amazon Watch — COP13 events and Indigenous participation
• Associated Press — Criminal networks threaten the Amazon; Indigenous leaders seek UN action

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