Brazil: Amazon nations launch alliance to protect rainforest

BRASILIA: Eight South American countries launched an alliance to fight deforestation in the Amazon — the world’s biggest rainforest — from reaching “a point of no return”, Al Jazeera reported on Wednesday. The agenda was adopted at a closely-watched summit of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), what host country Brazil called a “new and ambitious shared agenda” to save the rainforest.

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 roadmap to promote sustainable development, end deforestation and fight the organised crime that fuels it, Al Jazeera reported.

The leaders also challenged developed countries to do more to stop the “enormous destruction” of the world’s largest rainforest, a task they said “cannot fall to just a few countries when the crisis has been caused by so many”. Notably, the rainforest is considered a crucial buffer against climate change that experts warn is being pushed to the brink of collapse.

However, the summit attendees stopped short of agreeing to the key demands of environmentalists and indigenous groups, 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. Instead, countries will be left to pursue their individual deforestation goals, Al Jazeera reported. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has staked his international reputation on improving Brazil’s environmental standing, had been pushing for the region to unite behind a common policy of ending deforestation by 2030.

The two-day summit opened on the same day the European Union’s climate observatory confirmed that July was the hottest month ever recorded on Earth. Lula emphasised the “severe worsening of the climate crisis” in his opening speech. “The challenges of our era and the opportunities arising from them demand we act in unison,” he said, adding, “It has never been so urgent”. Colombian President Gustavo Petro urged a radical rethink of the global economy, calling for a “Marshall Plan”-style strategy in which developing countries debt is cancelled in exchange for action to protect the climate. “If we are on the verge of extinction and this is the decade when the big decisions have to be made…then what are we doing, besides giving speeches?” Al Jazeera quoted Petro as saying.

However, disappointment was expressed by many after the eight Amazon countries failed to agree on a binding pact to protect their forests. “The planet is melting, we are breaking temperature records every day. It is not possible that, in a scenario like this, eight Amazonian countries are unable to put in a statement – in large letters – that deforestation needs to be zero,” said Marcio Astrini of the environmental lobby group Climate Observatory.

Beyond deforestation, the “Belem Declaration”, the gathering’s official proclamation issued on Tuesday, also did not fix a deadline on ending illegal gold mining, although leaders agreed to cooperate on the issue and better combat cross-border environmental crime, Al Jazeera reported.