Bogota. The Amazon summit convened by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva today concluded its deliberations in the northern Brazilian city of Belém du Pará with the consolidation of a regional bloc of the eight countries that make up this biome of almost eight million square kilometers, equivalent to 44 percent of the South American territory.
Although the presidents who attended the summit -Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia- as well as the delegates from Venezuela, Ecuador, Guyana and Suriname agreed on the diagnosis of the serious threats that threaten the environmental balance of the Amazon, the final document of The meeting -known as the Declaration of Belem- also revealed notorious differences in approach between the governments of the area.
On a draft presented by the Brazilian hosts, the declaration included several paragraphs and comments provided by the other countries, but it was striking that one of the proposals championed by Lula and the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, was excluded so that the eight governments would commit to to reach the year 2030 with zero deforestation of forests.
According to scientists who take the pulse of the largest plant lung on the planet, the Amazon today exhibits an enormous scar produced by the slashing and burning of 17 percent of its forests, barely three points less than the percentage that is considered the “point of no return.” ”, moment in which the biome would stop absorbing harmful emissions to start generating them.
Most of this inclement “grave” of forests is used for the creation of large agricultural (soybean) and cattle ranches, as well as for planting hundreds of thousands of hectares of coca leaf.
From the satellites you can also observe the huge areas used for illegal mining that not only generate deforestation but also contaminate the rivers through which twenty percent of the planet’s fresh water meanders.
Another issue that was not included in the declaration was that of fossil fuels, an issue that even caused friction between presidents Lula and Petro, the latter having become a kind of international champion of replacing oil and coal in the generation of energy.
