The countries meet this Wednesday in Brazil with representatives of other regions, invited to an Amazon 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), which announced an alliance against deforestation after a meeting on Tuesday but they failed to agree on common goalsthey will receive the presidents of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Like Indonesian, which also sent a representative to the city of Belém (north), these African countries harbor tropical forests in their territories.
Also participating are delegations from Norway and Germany, the main donors of the Brazilian Amazon Fund, created to finance environmental projects, and the French ambassador in Brasiliawhose overseas territory of Guyana shares a portion of the Amazon.
The objective in the Amazon Summit will be to achieve positions in common for the UN COP28 on climate change, to be held at the end of the year in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
COP30, in 2025, It 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 (ex Twitter), who called for “protect vital stocks, carbon and biodiversity, in the interest of countries with forests, their people and the world as a whole«.
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Amazon Summit: President Gustavo Petro met with President Lula da Silva
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva received Gustavo Petro on Tuesday; 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.
equator and Suriname were represented by their foreign ministers.
The eight members at the Amazon Summit agreed in a statement “establish the Amazon Alliance to Combat Deforestation»in addition to strengthening its cooperation against organized crime in the region and promoting sustainable development.
The objective is “prevent the Amazon from reaching the point of no return“From which, according to scientists, it will start to emit more carbon than it absorbs, aggravating climate change.
The regional alliance will work to achieve the «national goals» of deforestation in each country, such as Brazil, which plans to eradicate it by 2030, according to the agency.
“It has never been so urgent to resume and expand our cooperationsaid Lula, whose country is home to 60% of the Amazon.
Environmental experts regretted, however, that the “Belém Declaration» would bring few concrete measures.
Is about “a first step, but it does not bring concrete decisions, it is a list of promises,” criticized Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Brazil-based environmental coalition Observatório do Clima.
“The planet is melting, temperature records are being broken every day, and it is not possible that eight Amazon leaders fail to put in a statement in bold letters that deforestation must be zeroAstrini added.
Among the “principles” agreed upon by the presidents to drive their preservation plans, 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 create a scientific panel, modeled on the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and a Center for International Police Cooperation in the Amazon city of Manaus.
At the time of the speeches, President Gustavo Petro advocated the eradication of of fossil fuels in the Amazon.
“Isn’t that a complete contradiction? (…). whatA jungle that extracts oil? Is it possible to maintain a political line of that level, bet on death and destroy life?” said Gustavo Petro.
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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 to illegal logging and mining, according to data from the MapBiomas Amazonia research project.
AFP.
