The Belém Amazon Dialogues, the first summit attended by high-level representatives of the governments of the eight countries that share the Amazon in 14 years, culminated in a sweeping declaration with heavy emphasis on indigenous peoples, science and regional cooperation.
The mere realization of an event of this magnitude is positive, but it will not be more than ink on paper if a plan with clear goals, a road map and resources to implement them is not developed.
Saving the Amazon is a race against time. The dangerous mix of climate change, extractive economies, and organized crime leaves the largest rainforest on the planet facing an existential threat. The countries are aware that with the leadership of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Gustavo Petro are two progressive presidents with a strong environmental agenda, but above all they know that the geopolitical climate in Latin America can change rapidly and that the Amazon’s chances of survival are nearing a point of no return.
Despite the differences and tensions between some of the different Amazonian countries, there is an apparent consensus on an issue shared by many of the indigenous and civil society participants during my visit to the Summit in Belém: in the Amazon there is a crisis of security and a strong response must be formulated to counter environmental crime and violence.
Gustavo Petro, who has barely been in command for a year, suggested an “international court of environmental justice” and dared to speak of an Amazonian NATO of military cooperation. Lula, for his part, promised to deploy more Federal Police forces across the borders in the Amazon. “We will establish agreements with all neighboring countries,” Lula said. “We will make a firm commitment to driving drug dealers, arms dealers and organized crime in this country out of our forests. It is a task that we have assumed here.”
The pronouncements are dramatic and security cooperation strategies involve many risks, especially when they involve armed forces already tainted by abuses of power and human rights violations. This is why security strategies must be consulted and agreed upon with populations in the Amazon and must involve non-military state agencies.
The threat posed by the presence and actions of criminal organizations is real, in fact, together with a group of journalists we have been documenting it. For more than a year, I led a project —called Amazon Underworld— which involves almost 40 media professionals from 11 countries who traveled to every corner of the Amazon to document the presence of armed groups in charge of illicit economies such as illegal mining, arms and drug trafficking.
What the Amazon Underworld team found is chilling. Criminal organizations control the lives of entire populations, ignoring local authority or acting in collision with it. Due to state absence, violent pressure, and lack of formal economies, men, women, and children often have no choice but to work as the labor force for these illegal organizations and activities that are wreaking havoc on the environment. In fact, we found criminal groups in 70 percent of the municipalities we investigated in the border areas of the six main Amazon countries.
Deep in the jungle, and especially in border areas with minimal state presence, the convergence of illicit activities with legitimate businesses and corrupt elements presents enormous obstacles to the well-being of the Amazon, exacerbating the detrimental impact of crime on the environment. and the well-being of local communities.
The Amazon has become a violent place. Amid the opportunity for criminal portfolios to grow, more and more criminal groups from outside the Amazon have arrived. The lure of illicit profits has a captivating effect on originally urban gangs such as PCC and Comando Vermelho, hailing from São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and armed groups such as Colombian guerrilla organizations.
Armed groups initially came to the Amazon for the most part to control drug trafficking and for coca, the main ingredient in cocaine, but stayed for gold, cattle ranching, and minerals—and also to launder drug proceeds.
Police forces cannot be excluded from organized crime networks, which we learned the hard way when a Military Police team intimidated us and forced us to hand over our camera memory cards when traveling through the Brazilian Amazon. We enter their domain, where both criminals and policemen demand payment in gold from illegal miners to tolerate and protect this illicit economy that destroys the rainforest.
Until now, the authorities have failed miserably in dealing with increasingly complex criminal networks that extend their influence throughout the region. These transnational organizations now engage in a form of criminal diplomacy that would no doubt impress even seasoned politicians, forging alliances across borders despite their cultural and ideological differences.
The escalation of violence and the criminal presence could jeopardize the mere presence of States in the jungle and international support for economic development, social inclusion and conservation projects in the Amazon.
But not all is lost. The presidential summit in Belém constitutes a fundamental platform to initiate change. There are numerous measures that States could, and should, take to enhance cooperation and involve local communities and civil society.
Increase state presence in remote areas to promote healthcare, education and economic development; Developing strategies for effective cooperation between security forces, as well as addressing the financial flows behind environmental crime and corruption are some of the essential measures to ensure a safer and more sustainable future for the rainforest.
To mitigate the attack on the Amazon, cooperation is key and time is running out.
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