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The presidents of the Amazon region are working out a joint agreement.
Foto: Ricardo Stuckert/PR via Public Photos
CC BY-NC 2.0
(Brasilia, 8. August 2023, Latin Press).- The Amazon Summit, convened by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, opened on August 8th in the northern state of Pará to set a common agenda for cooperation and rainforest development.
Consolidation before the next climate summit
The fourth meeting of the Presidents of the member states of the Amazon Cooperation Agreement in Belém, the capital of Pará, is attended by the eight signatory states of the agreement: Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Guyana, Ecuador, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. Representatives of invited nations and international organizations will be present, including the Organization for the Amazon Cooperation Agreement (OTCA). The Presidential Meeting was preceded by the Amazon Dialogues on August 4-6. The meeting was accompanied by a program of over 300 civil society events. The results of the discussions will be presented to Amazonian leaders as part of an initiative to encourage social participation at the summit’s top-level meetings. As part of the forum, a meeting of foreign and environment ministers took place the day before, which served to prepare for the presidential meeting.
Activate the “channels of dialogue”.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira stated that at the end of the summit, the countries of the Amazon region will adopt the so-called Belém Declaration, which will establish a new common agenda for regional cooperation to promote sustainable rainforest development. The declaration will include protecting the rainforest and watershed, promoting social inclusion, promoting science, technology and innovation, stimulating local economies and valuing indigenous peoples and their ancestral knowledge. Another goal of the two-day meeting is to strengthen OTCA so that it can support the Amazon countries in implementing sustainable development initiatives and projects. The aim of the summit is for the countries of the Amazon region to agree on a unified position on the protection of the rainforest, which is to be presented at the next world climate summit (COP28) in November in the United Arab Emirates. According to Vieira, the Lula government has acted decisively since its first day in office to end the humanitarian catastrophe unleashed by the incursion of illegal mining into Yanomami tribal lands in recent years. With the meeting, the government wants to “reactivate the channels of dialogue” and “find solutions to our common challenges through cooperation”.
With a total area of seven million square kilometers, the Amazon region is the most biodiverse area and the most important water reserve on earth. Around 50 million people and more than 400 indigenous peoples live in the lungs of the world.