Copper rush threatens amazon indigenous communities as global demand for critical metals soars

In the high Amazon forests of southwestern Colombia, indigenous communities are facing a familiar but unwelcome sight: foreign companies arriving with promises of prosperity in exchange for what lies beneath their ancestral lands. Zuly Rivera, a youth coordinator for the Nasa people, recalls how first it was gold miners who came calling. Now, it’s copper that has captured international attention.

The surge in global demand for critical metals needed for renewable energy technologies and electronic devices is driving a new wave of mining proposals across Latin America’s most biodiverse regions. The Amazon foothills of both Ecuador and Colombia have become prime targets for international mining companies seeking to capitalize on rich mineral deposits buried beneath some of the world’s most ecologically sensitive rainforests.

For indigenous communities like the Nasa, who have inhabited these forested regions for generations, the latest mining boom represents both an existential threat to their traditional way of life and their role as guardians of critical ecosystems. The proposed copper extraction projects could devastate local watersheds, fragment wildlife corridors, and displace communities whose cultural identity is deeply intertwined with the forest landscape.

This Amazon copper rush reflects a broader global tension between the urgent need for metals to power the clean energy transition and the environmental costs of extracting these materials from some of Earth’s most pristine and carbon-rich ecosystems. As wealthy nations push for rapid decarbonization, the environmental and social impacts are increasingly being exported to indigenous territories in the Global South.