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In recent days, an important meeting was held in the Brazilian city of Belém between the leaders of almost all the countries of South America to seek agreements and solutions to the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, the largest rainforest on Earth, located in the northwestern part of Brazil and portions of Peru, Colombia and other countries in the region. The meeting ended on Tuesday. Most environmental groups felt that the results achieved were disappointing: there has been some progress, but countries have not made any binding decisions on how to reduce deforestation and when to stop it altogether.
The meeting was called by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has made tackling deforestation one of the priorities of his presidency since taking office earlier this year. The presidents of Colombia, Bolivia and Peru attended, and the governments of Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname also sent representatives. The meeting concluded with the creation of an “alliance” among all the countries present to fight deforestation, but no common goal was announced for its reduction: each country will continue with its previous policies.
The Amazon is a tropical rainforest whose vegetation has expanded enormously thanks to the warm and humid conditions offered by the drainage basin of the Amazon River and its many tributaries. It is one of the richest ecosystems in the world and is essential for, among other things, the removal of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and its role in the release of water vapor, which then determines the amount of rainfall and consequently a lot of other things, from ocean currents to global temperatures.
After the years of populist and right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, during which controls had been relaxed and deforestation had increased alarmingly, Lula has launched urgent measures to curb the problem, with encouraging results: according to data from the Brazilian government In July, deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil fell 66 percent compared to the same period in 2022. In June, Lula also announced that Brazil will stop human-induced deforestation altogether. by 2030strengthening measures against logging and controls.
The meeting with the other leaders of the region is part of Brazil’s initiatives against deforestation in the Amazon: the one held in Belém is the first meeting of its kind in 14 years. In his opening speech, Lula said that “it has never been so urgent to resume and extend our cooperation.”
The member countries have adopted a joint declaration in 113 points (made public as the “Declaration of Belém”) in which, among other things, they have set up a new body (the Amazonian Alliance to Combat Deforestation) and have undertaken to «avoid that the deforestation of the Amazon reaches a point of no return”. But during the meeting there were numerous divisions, which ultimately prevented the achievement of common and binding goals, as the Brazilian government had hoped that it would like to extend the goal of eliminating deforestation by 2030 to all Amazonian countries.
Talking anonymously with Reutersa Brazilian official he said that one of the countries most opposed to binding targets was Bolivia, where deforestation rather than decrease it’s rising pretty fast.
There were also divisions over the exploitation of the region’s natural resources: Colombian President Gustavo Petro during the meeting called for a moratorium on the extraction of oil and other hydrocarbons in the Amazon, trying to promote the slogan “Amazon without oil” . However, his appeal has not been heard by any of the other countries: not even by Brazil, which is evaluating the exploitation of a large oil field found at the mouth of the Amazon River.