Protecting the Amazon region is crucial for everyone’s future. If it were a country, the Amazon would be the sixth largest in the world. With almost a third of the planet’s tropical forests, it stores up to 200 billion tons of carbon, with a mitigating effect on climate change. And 70% of South America’s GDP depends on the rain cycles regulated by the Amazon basin.

However, this ecosystem is reaching an ecological tipping point and could lose its ability to sustain itself. If that happens, we would lose a key climate regulator to combat global warming.

We need to be more agile and ambitious to protect the region and its 60 million people. The only way to do this is through cooperation.

Ecuador, as part of the Amazon, develops projects such as the BASE program for biobusiness financing, to promote sustainable production activities that provide economic alternatives to local communities and reduce potential negative impacts on the environment and society.

In addition, the commitment of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to the Ecuadorian Amazon is seen in programs that seek to improve the living conditions of indigenous peoples and with financial support to the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (Coica) to strengthen its regional leadership.

We need to increase our ability to organize and implement projects. The new Amazonía Siempre program, created by the IDB and the Ministers of Finance and Planning of the Amazonian countries, seeks to act as an umbrella for the coordination of different initiatives in the region and can be a tool to support the goals defined by the Amazonian countries in the context of the summit meeting of the Amazonian Cooperation Treaty Organization ( FATHER), in Belém.

The sustainable development of the region requires a holistic and coherent approach based on: (I) combating deforestation, improving environmental control and offering sustainable economic alternatives, especially through the bioeconomy, (II) supporting the people and communities of the Amazon, (III) improving the quality of life in Amazonian cities and (IV) promoting infrastructure, including digital connectivity.

Three dimensions are the key to success.

First, it is essential to expand the availability of public and private credit, to create innovative instruments to raise the necessary resources such as green bonds linked to sustainability that the IDB recently helped develop in Uruguay. Consider even Amazon bonds and debt-for-nature swaps like the one the IDB recently pushed to help Ecuador save more than $1 billion for conservation in the Galapagos Islands.

Second, project planning and implementation need to be strengthened so that funds produce impact. We are creating a platform for regional Amazon partners to develop investment plans and scale up projects from sustainable infrastructure to social areas.

Finally, share evidence-based knowledge and innovation to drive research and help decision makers create better opportunities in the region.

The summit in Belém gives us the opportunity to move from words to actions. If we don’t save Amazon forever, it’s hard to think about the future forever. (OR)