Amazon nations launch alliance to fight deforestation at summit
- Joint declaration issued at Amazon summit in the Brazilian city of Belem created an alliance for combating forest destruction
- But the summit stopped short of adopting Brazil’s pledge to end illegal deforestation by 2030 and Colombia’s pledge to halt new oil exploration
Eight South American countries agreed to launch an alliance to fight deforestation in the Amazon, vowing at a summit in Brazil to stop the world’s biggest rainforest from reaching “a point of no return”.
The closely watched summit of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) adopted what host country Brazil called a “new and ambitious shared agenda” to save the rainforest, a crucial buffer against climate change that experts warn is being pushed to the brink of collapse.
The group’s members – Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela – signed a joint declaration in Belem, at the mouth of the Amazon River, laying out a nearly 10,000-word road map to promote sustainable development, end deforestation and fight the organised crime that fuels it.
But the summit stopped short of environmentalists’ and Indigenous groups’ boldest demands, including for all member countries to adopt Brazil’s pledge to end illegal deforestation by 2030 and Colombia’s pledge to halt new oil exploration.
“It’s a first step, but there isn’t a concrete decision, just a list of promises,” said Marcio Astrini, head of the Brazil-based Climate Observatory coalition.