Bogota. A copious shower of initiatives to save the Amazon from the dangers that threaten it flooded today the venue where presidents and ministers of the eight South American countries that share this biome, considered the main plant lung of the planet, meet.
From the convention center of the city of Belém do Pará, just a few meters from the mouth of the longest and mightiest river in the world, the host of this IV Summit, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, greeted his guests with a message of alarm: “It has never been so urgent to resume cooperation to face the challenges that the Amazon has today,” he said.
He pointed out that this region “will be what we want it to be, a place with greener areas, purer air, rivers without pollution. An Amazon within everyone’s reach, with welcoming migrants, respected indigenous people and young people with more hope. An Amazon that wakes up and knows itself”. The presidents of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, Bolivia, Luis Arce and Peru, Dina Boluarte, arrived in Belém, northern Brazil, as well as special envoys from the presidents from Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname.
During the inaugural session, distressing alerts were heard as well as loud calls for immediate action, but above all, dozens of proposals were launched to stop the looming environmental catastrophe, derived from years of state inaction.
According to most scientific investigations, predatory agents of various origins took 17 percent of its forest from the Amazon, leaving it only three points away from reaching what experts call a “point of no return.”
These devastations have been caused by various factors, ranging from the expansion of the agricultural frontier – allocating new lands to extensive cattle ranching – to the proliferation of coca leaf cultivation areas, illegal mining, the exploitation of wood, trafficking fauna and flora, smuggling in border areas and even human trafficking.
Refreshing Downpour of Proposals
Lula himself led the avalanche of initiatives, proposing “a new vision of sustainable development that includes the protection of work and the rights of those who inhabit this region.” It is estimated that some 50 million people live in the 7.8 million square kilometers that the Amazon occupies, equivalent to 44 percent of the South American territory.
The Brazilian president accused his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, of having caused an ecological disaster and asked the governments of the area to join efforts to combat organized crime.
Gustavo Petro went further and proposed the creation of a NATO-type military treaty “to interdict everything that goes against the jungle”, with absolute respect for the national sovereignty of each of the eight Amazon countries.
