“We have decided to establish the Amazon Alliance to Combat Deforestation, with the goal of… preventing the Amazon from reaching a point of no return,” the countries said in the joint declaration on Tuesday.
According to AFP, it is a roadmap of nearly 10,000 words that aims to promote sustainable development, stop deforestation and fight the organized crime that drives it.
High expectations
Expectations are high for the two-day summit in the city of Belém, at the mouth of the Amazon River, which began on Tuesday. It is the first time in 14 years that the leaders of the eight Amazonian countries – Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela – are gathering.
On the agenda are discussions on protecting the rainforest, with Brazil wanting to get the rest of the countries on board with the goal of completely ending illegal logging by 2030. Meanwhile, Colombian President Gustavo Petro is pushing to get the other countries to buy into his pledge to stop all new oil exploitation in Amazonian areas. However, as far as these issues are concerned, no agreement has yet been reached.
Promises bold action
The host of the meeting is the Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – who has made the protection of the rainforest one of his profile issues since he took over from the right-wing nationalist representative Jair Bolsonaro at the turn of the year.
Lula promised before the opening that the summit will produce bold measures to stop the destruction of the world’s largest rainforest.
— This meeting is a landmark. It will mark a turning point in the history of protecting the Amazon, he said.