The Amazon countries meet this Wednesday in Brazil with representatives of other regions, invited to a summit to discuss the preservation of the planet’s forests with a view to COP28 against climate change.
The eight members of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (OTCA), who announced an alliance against deforestation after a meeting on Tuesday but failed to agree on common goals, will receive the presidents of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Like Indonesia, which also sent a representative to the city of Belém (north), these African countries have tropical forests in their territories.
Also participating are delegations from Norway and Germany, main donors to Brazil’s Amazon Fund, created to finance environmental projects, and France’s ambassador to Brasilia, whose overseas territory of Guyana shares a portion of the Amazon.
The objective will be to achieve common positions for the UN COP28 on climate change, to be held at the end of the year in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. COP30, in 2025, will be held precisely in the city of Belém.
“It is urgent to put an end to deforestation,” declared French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday on X (former Twitter), who called for “protecting vital reserves of carbon and biodiversity, in the interest of countries with forests, their population and the whole world.”
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Presidents agree to fight against deforestation
On Tuesday, the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, received the presidents of Colombia, Gustavo Petro; from Bolivia, Luis Arce; from Peru, Dina Boluarte; as well as the Prime Minister of Guyana, Mark Phillips, and the Venezuelan Vice President, Delcy Rodríguez. Ecuador and Suriname were represented by their foreign ministers.
The eight members agreed in a declaration to “establish the Amazon Alliance to Combat Deforestation,” in addition to strengthening its cooperation against organized crime in the region and promoting sustainable development.
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The objective is to “prevent the Amazon from reaching the point of no return”, after which, according to scientists, it will begin to emit more carbon than it absorbs, aggravating climate change.
The regional alliance will work to achieve the “national goals” for deforestation in each country, such as that of Brazil, which plans to eradicate it by 2030, according to the organization. “It has never been so urgent to resume and expand our cooperation,” said Lula, whose country is home to 60% of the Amazon.
Environmental experts regretted, however, that the “Belem Declaration” brought few concrete measures. It is “a first step, but it does not bring concrete decisions, it is a list of promises,” criticized Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the environmental coalition Observatório do Clima, based in Brazil.
“The planet is melting, temperature records are being broken every day, and it is not possible that eight Amazon leaders fail to place in a statement in bold letters that deforestation must be zero,” Astrini added.
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It is not possible that eight Amazonian leaders fail to place in a statement in bold letters that deforestation must be zero
Among the “principles” agreed upon by the presidents to drive their preservation plans, there is “active participation” of indigenous peoples, whose territories are considered an important barrier against deforestation, due to the sustainable use they make of resources.
They also agreed to the creation of a scientific panel, inspired by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and a Center for International Police Cooperation in the Amazonian city of Manaus.
At the time of the speeches, Colombian President Gustavo Petro called for an eradication of fossil fuels in the Amazon.
An Amazon court of justice for environmental crimes against the jungle, an Amazon military treaty, a multilateral center for scientific research on the Jungle, an Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, ACTO, that opens up to social movements… pic.twitter.com/0awf5ZPVFK
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) August 8, 2023
“Isn’t it a total contradiction? (…). A jungle that extracts oil? Is it possible to maintain a political line of that level, bet on death and destroy life?” Petro said.
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The debate comes at a time when Brazil is looking at a new and controversial exploratory frontier of the state-owned Petrobras in front of the Amazon River delta, and Ecuadorians decide in a referendum on the future of crude oil exploitation in part of the Yasuní reserve. , from where the country extracts 12% of its production.
Between 1985 and 2021, The South American jungle lost 17% of its vegetation cover, due to activities such as cattle ranching, but also illegal logging and mining, according to data from the MapBiomas Amazônia research project.
AFP
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