Atossa Soltani is founder and board president of Amazon Watch, a U.S.-based nonprofit that promotes indigenous rights and rainforest protection in the Amazon Basin. Before founding Amazon Watch in 1996, Soltani worked for five years as a campaign director for Rainforest Action Network, where she helped draw attention to the indiscriminate clearing of tropical forests. A native of Iran who moved to the United States as a child, Soltani first became involved in environmental issues as conservation director for the city of Santa Monica, California, in the late 1980s. She spoke recently with EcoAméricas correspondent Mercedes Alvaro in Quito, Ecuador, where she was meeting with leaders of indigenous communities in the early stages of a project aimed at curbing the advance of extractive industries in the Amazon region. Since 2001, Amazon Watch has supported indigenous-rights initiatives, including efforts by Ecuadorian indigenous communities to seek damages for oilfield pollution of their rainforest environment during 1964-92. [Log in to read more]

Would you like to Subscribe?