The Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvaleads as of this Tuesday a summit of the Amazon countriess in the city of Belém to promote a new development model that will put an end to the cycle of destruction that devastates the largest tropical forest on the planet.
It will be the fourth meeting of leaders of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (OTCA) and the first since 2009 of this bloc created in 1995 and made up of eight partners: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.
The Summit in Belém, capital of the Brazilian state of Pará, is expected to be attended by all heads of state, except Guillermo Lasso (Ecuador) and Chan Santokhi (Suriname), who declined the invitation for internal political reasons.
The president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, will be there, in what will be her first trip abroad since she took office, on December 7, 2022, after receiving authorization from Congress.
The appointment occurs at a time when the Amazon forest is going through a serious crisis, affected by high rates of deforestation, illegal mining, the growing presence of drug trafficking and harassment of native peoples.
“The world needs to see this meeting as a historical framework for the discussion of the climate issue,” Lula said in the days prior to the meeting.
A broad statement
This same Monday, the foreign and environment ministers will meet behind closed doors to finalize the details of the Belém Declaration, which will initially consist of some “130 points” and will include a plan to keep the forest standing, according to Brazilian sources.
On Tuesday, the presidents will share their points of view on this vast territory of 6.3 million square kilometers, home to the largest hydrographic basin in the world and in which close to 50 million people live, mostly in a precarious situation.
The objective is to find a balance point between safeguarding the ecosystem, key to reducing carbon emissions generated by the felling of trees and maintaining the rainfall regime in South America, and providing decent living conditions to its inhabitants through the so-called bioeconomy. .
“There is an understanding of all the presidents that the Amazon cannot reach the point of no return,” The Brazilian Environment Minister, Marina Silva, told reporters before the summit.
Reaching that extreme would mean that the tropical forest has lost its ability to regenerate and is irreversibly heading towards its transformation into a savannah, which would have terrible consequences for the region.
However, some specialists maintain that this process of “savannization” It is already being observed in some areas of the ecosystem, depending on the behavior of certain animal species.
Civil society calls for concrete commitments
The great unknown is whether the presidents will be able to reach concrete goals to stop the destruction of the forest.
The scientific community and representatives of non-governmental organizations have given them several ideas during the celebration of the Amazon Dialogues, which between Friday and Sunday hosted sectoral debates on the challenges of the biome.
Their demands can be summarized in three points: establish a deadline to end deforestation, protect 80% of the biome through new protected areas and indigenous lands, and declare the Amazon in a climate emergency situation.
Brazil and Colombia have already promised to end illegal felling of trees by 2030 and are working so that the rest of the ACTO partners assume that objective or another similar one adjusted to the reality of each country.
In 2022, deforestation in the entire ecosystem increased by 21% compared to 2021, the highest figure since 2004, according to data from the Andean Amazon Monitoring Project, with Brazil, Bolivia and Peru leading the statistics.
The Government of Colombian President Gustavo Petro also seeks to lay the foundations to stop projects for the exploitation of fossil fuels in the Amazon.
Already on Wednesday there will be an extended session with other invited countries, such as Indonesia, the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which also possess large areas of tropical forest.
It was also called Saint Vincent and the Grenadine, for exercising the Pro Tempore Presidency of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac); as well as France, for French Guiana; Germany and Norway, contributors to the Amazon Fund, which promotes sustainable projects in the area.
Source: EFE
Source: Gestion
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