Leaders from eight Amazonian countries gathered in Brazil to discuss joint strategies to protect the Amazon rainforest and develop the region sustainably.
Brazil hosted one of the most important international meetings to discuss the future of the Amazon rainforest and the entire planet, under the title "Amazon Summit," which took place on August 8-9 2023 in the city of Belém, Pará state, with the attendance of several heads of state and government. Preceding the summit is another meeting, titled "Amazon Dialogues," which has already begun on August 4 in the same location, with the aim of discussing and presenting proposals and solutions to address the main challenges facing the rainforest and its peoples.
The results of the Amazon Dialogues and the resulting documents were presented to the leaders of the eight countries during the presidential summit to determine priorities which were to be implemented in other forums such as the United Nations General Assembly and the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) in Dubai at the end of the last year.
The Amazon Crisis The Amazon rainforest is considered the "lungs of the Earth" and represents more than half of the remaining rainforests on the planet. It is the most important sanctuary for the greatest biodiversity in the world, accounting for 10% of the planet's total biomass. The Amazon rainforest and other tropical forests store between 90 and 140 billion tons of carbon, thus helping to stabilize the global climate. They also produce huge amounts of water, known as "flying rivers," that transport water and moisture across all of South America. The largest portion of the Amazon is in Brazil and extends into seven other South American countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. Across the Amazon, deforestation is largely driven by land grabs, cattle ranching, and agriculture, along with illegal mining and logging. Recent studies show that 17% of the Amazon forest has already been cleared, and 38% of the remaining forest has been degraded. In Brazil, the world's largest exporter of beef and soy, forest destruction has resulted in the loss of about one-fifth of the tropical rainforest. The encroachment on the Amazon rainforest is a persistent global headache, as the collapse of the Amazon’s ecosystems could lead to an environmental and climate catastrophe of epic proportions, with consequences for the entire planet. At the start of 2023, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva became president of Brazil, with promises to address the environmental degradation caused by his predecessor, former President Jair Bolsonaro, who was known for his anti-environment agenda. Under Bolsonaro, Brazil saw the highest rise in emissions in nearly two decades. Amazon Cooperation Lula has pledged to eliminate illegal deforestation by 2030, after it reached its highest level in 15 years in the Amazon region under his far-right predecessor, who did not attend the last major regional summit on protecting the Amazon, hosted by Colombia in 2019. To this end, the Brazilian president called for the Amazon Summit, attended by the heads of states sharing the Amazon, as well as other international representatives, with the aim of strengthening the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) and renewing the cooperation treaty between its member countries. The Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) is responsible for organizing the summit. It is an intergovernmental organization consisting of Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela, which formed the only social and environmental bloc in Latin America through the signing of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty in 1978. President Lula referred to
the Amazon Summit as a landmark for a new phase of cooperation between the members of ACTO. He said: "With the resumption of regional dialogue and the relations between the participating countries' governmental entities and agencies, the countries will jointly determine the policies and shared commitments for sustainable development in the region."
He added, "What we want is to tell the world what we will do with our forests and what the world needs to do to help us."
Ayala Colares Couto, a geographer and researcher at the Brazilian Public Safety Forum, said, "One of the biggest problems these countries have faced for a long time is the issue of organized crime, so it is essential to unify the agenda and create a joint perspective to combat it." Bioeconomy and sustainable development were also be on the agenda, according to Brazilian Minister of Climate and Environment André Corrêa do Lago.
