Several environmental organizations expressed their satisfaction with the issues addressed in the final declaration of the Amazon Summit, held in Brazil, but criticized the lack of concrete actions that lead to solutions for the largest jungle on the planet.
“This is a very initial agreement, a first step, but it still doesn’t give any concrete answer to the world we live in,” said Marcio Astrini, executive director of the Climate Observatory, a network of more than 70 environmental organizations. in Brazil. .
“It is not possible that, in a scenario like this, eight Amazonian countries do not make a declaration with capital letters that deforestation has to be zero and that oil exploitation in the middle of the tropical forest is not a good idea,” he added. , referring to the Declaration of Belém, signed this Tuesday in the Brazilian state of Pará.
Astrini’s sentiment was echoed by other environmental networks and organizations, such as Coalição Brasil, the World Resources Institute (WRI), WWF-Brazil and Conservation International (CI).
For the founder of Coalizão Brasil, Marcelo Furtado, a network made up of more than 350 representatives from the public, private, academic and civil society sectors, what is stated in the document “is a mix of good news and a bit of frustration.”
According to the specialist, although the summit addressed the correct issues, “it did not present” concrete actions “in the short and medium term” that could change the current situation of the biome.
The same opinion was shared by the environmental organization World Resources Institute (WRI), which stressed the need to “put these ideas into practice.”
The eight countries that make up the Amazon Cooperation Treaty signed the Belém Declaration on Tuesday, in which they consolidated a new and “ambitious” common cooperation agenda for the Amazon.
Among the 113 points of the document are the launch of the Amazon Alliance to Combat Deforestation, the creation of financial mechanisms to promote sustainable development and cooperation to combat environmental crimes.
In addition, the creation of a fund to receive international donations to finance sustainable development projects in the largest tropical forest in the world.
However, issues that caused controversy at the meeting, such as oil exploration in the Amazon, were addressed almost superficially, as well as the commitment to zero deforestation by 2030, a topic to which only some Amazonian countries, such as Brazil and Colombia, adhered. have directly engaged.
The eight countries further urge developed countries to honor their pledge to mobilize financial resources of USD 100 billion a year “in climate finance to support the needs of developing countries, and to recognize the need to make substantial progress.” in the deliberations on the new quantified collective”. target for climate finance, to be completed by 2024″.
The commitment to reduce oil exploitation in the Amazon was left out, an ambition of Colombia and Ecuador, which did not have the endorsement of the largest country on the continent, Brazil.
Despite Brazil’s ambition for this summit, reducing oil exploration in the region has been a ‘taboo’ subject, with attempts to avoid the issue by diplomats and even by Lula da Silva and his environment minister. , Marina Silva.
Brazil’s largest state oil company Petrobras has said it is confident it can start exploring a controversial offshore oil field near the mouth of the Amazon river, despite recent denial from environmental authorities.
The eight countries of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (OTCA) -Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela- began a two-day meeting today.
This is the fourth meeting of the leaders of the ACTO, a bloc created in 1995, and the first since 2009. Now, the leaders of the ACTO will extend the talks to the invited countries, which have large tracts of tropical forests, including Indonesia. , Republic of the Congo and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Source: TSF
