The eight countries that divide the Amazon rainforest between their territories today approved a statement guaranteeing the strengthening of the protection of this “lung of the world”, launching the Amazon Alliance to Combat Deforestation.
The text was signed this Tuesday by Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela, members of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty (ACT), during the Amazon Summit in the city of Belém, in the Brazilian state of For.
One of the main points of the so-called Belém Declaration, “notes the launch of the Amazon Alliance to Combat Deforestation, based on national goals, such as zero deforestation by 2030 in Brazil, strengthening the application of forest laws”.
The text approved by the eight countries, based on a Brazilian proposal, also guarantees the adoption of transversal principles such as the protection and promotion of human rights, “active participation and promotion of the rights of indigenous peoples and local and traditional communities, gender equality, combating all forms of discrimination, based on an intercultural and intergenerational approach”.
Among the 113 points of the statement, the countries’ commitment to strengthen the fight against organized crime in the region, such as drug trafficking, illegal mining, violence against indigenous peoples, among other crimes, in the Amazon, which corresponds to 6, 3 million square kilometers, an area that covers less than 1% of the Earth’s surface, but is home to almost 10% of the Earth’s biodiversity.
An integrated air traffic control system will be created to combat illegal air traffic and Brazil has committed to establishing an international police cooperation center in Manaus for the police of the eight countries
In addition, there will be created “financial mechanisms to promote sustainable development, with an emphasis on the Green Coalition, which brings together development banks in the region”reads the joint statement issued by the Brazilian government in Portuguese.
The Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization will play a key role in the implementation of the proposed goals and beyond “the Belém Declaration envisions major revisions to the institutional framework of the Organization, including the establishment of a financial mechanism to raise and capitalize on non-repayable funds”.
The eight countries also urge developed countries to fulfill their pledge to mobilize financial resources worth $100,000 million a year “in climate finance to support the needs of developing countries, and to recognize the need to make substantial progress in deliberations on the new quantified collective target for climate finance, to be completed by 2024”.
Omitted was the commitment to cut oil exploration in the Amazon, an ambition of Colombia and Ecuador, which did not receive the backing of the continent’s largest country, Brazil.
“We have no dissenting views”Brazil’s foreign minister replied at a press conference broadcast on the EBC public network when asked about the criticisms of Colombia’s president Gustavo Petro.
Despite Brazil’s ambition for this summit, the reduction in oil exploration in the region has been a taboo subject, with attempts to avoid the issue by diplomats and even by Lula da Silva himself and his environment minister, Marina Silva.
Petrobras, Brazil’s largest state-owned oil company, has said it is confident it can begin exploring a controversial offshore oil field near the mouth of the Amazon, despite a recent refusal by environmental authorities.
The study for oil exploration near the mouth of the Amazon River is located in the state of Amapá (north), with Randolfe Rodrigues as Senator, a politician close to Lula da Silva who was affiliated with the Rede Sustentabilidade party, which has its flagship actions in favor of the environment, the climate emergency and the protection of biomes.
“It is a decision for the Brazilian state to make, but what we cannot do is stop investigating”said Lula da Silva on Friday.
The eight countries of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) – Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela – began a two-day meeting today.
This is the fourth meeting of ACTO leaders, a bloc founded in 1995, and the first since 2009.
On Wednesday, OCTA leaders will expand talks to invited countries with large areas of rainforest, including Indonesia, the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Source: DN
