Rainforest Nations In Africa And Asia Join The Amazon Summit To Discuss Rainforest Preservation

Brazil’s Belem: Representatives from the Amazon rainforest nations in Africa and Southeast Asia convened an Amazon meeting in Brazil on Wednesday to define a unified route for preserving ecologically diverse regions critical to combating climate change.

On Tuesday, leaders and ministers from eight Amazonian states signed a proclamation outlining strategies to boost economic development in their respective countries while avoiding Amazon’s continuous decline “from reaching a point of no return.” According to some scientists, destroying 20% to 25% of the forest may result in huge decreases in rainfall, converting more than half of the rainforest to tropical savannah and resulting in massive biodiversity loss.

Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela are members of the newly resurrected Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation, or ACTO, and have expressed hope that a united front will give them a significant voice in global environment talks ahead of the COP 28 climate conference in November.

Several environmental groups voiced disappointment with Tuesday’s joint declaration, calling it a collection of good ideas with few clear goals and deadlines. On the other hand, the region’s major Indigenous organization applauded the inclusion of two of its main demands.

The presidents of the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a representative from Indonesia’s president, and France’s ambassador to Brazil, representing the Amazonian province of French Guiana, joined the Amazon nations on Wednesday. The president of Norway, the country with the highest contribution to Brazil’s Amazon Fund for Sustainable Development, was also there.

Officials from developing rainforest nations were supposed to issue a joint declaration titled “United for our Forests,” according to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s agenda.

“The Amazon is our passport to a new relationship with the world, a more symmetric relationship in which our resources are valued and put to the service of all,” Lula remarked on Tuesday.

The conference underlines Lula’s approach of leveraging worldwide concern for the preservation of the Amazon. He has sought foreign financial backing for forest protection, buoyed by a 42% decrease in deforestation during his first seven months in office.

The Amazon covers an area twice the size of India. Brazil owns two-thirds of it, with the remaining third shared by seven other countries, including the territory of French Guiana. Governments have long considered it a territory to be colonized and exploited, with little concern for sustainability or Indigenous peoples’ rights.

The Amazon countries have all accepted the Paris climate agreement, which mandates parties to set reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions. However, cross-border cooperation has historically been limited, hampered by a lack of confidence, ideological disagreements, and a lack of government presence.

ACTO members, meeting for the fourth time in the organization’s 45-year history, indicated Tuesday that they have differing views on crucial topics.

Commitments to forest protection have needed to be more patchy. And contrary to popular belief, their joint proclamation did not include a mutual commitment to zero deforestation by 2030. Brazil and Colombia have already committed to this.

The lack of precise guarantees in the declaration was criticized by the Climate Observatory, a network of dozens of environmental and social groups, as well as Greenpeace and The Nature Conservancy.

“The declaration’s 113 operating paragraphs have the merit of reviving the forgotten ACTO and recognising that the biome is approaching a point of no return, but it does not offer practical solutions or a calendar of actions to avoid it,” the Climate Observatory said.

“The Amazon is our passport to a new relationship with the world, a more symmetric relationship in which our resources are valued and put to the service of all,” Lula remarked on Tuesday.

Colombian Indigenous leader Fany Kuiru of the Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organisations of the Amazon Basin praised the declaration for meeting two of their primary demands: recognition of their rights to traditional territories and establishing a mechanism for Indigenous peoples’ formal participation within ACTO.

Oil was a major source of contention between governments on Tuesday. Leftist Colombian President Gustavo Petro called for an end to oil extraction in the Amazon, referring to Brazil and other oil-producing countries in the region, and said governments must chart a course towards “decarbonized prosperity.”

Despite the differences, there was evidence of improved regional collaboration and a rising worldwide acknowledgment of the Amazon’s importance in mitigating climate change. A common voice, together with greater funding for ACTO, could help it serve as the region’s representation on the global stage ahead of the COP climate meeting, according to leaders.

On Wednesday, Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, the president of the forthcoming COP meeting, met with Lula in Belem.

“The Amazon is our passport to a new relationship with the world, a more symmetric relationship in which our resources are valued and put to the service of all,” Lula remarked on Tuesday.

SOURCE – (AP)