After 14 years without meeting, leaders of Amazonian rainforest nations converged in Belem, Brazil this morning to find ways to address the critical threats facing the world's largest tropical rainforest.
BELEM, Brazil — For the first time in 14 years, presidents of the South American nations home to the Amazon rainforest are converging to chart a common course for protection of the bioregion and address organized crime. The summit Tuesday and Wednesday in the Brazilian city of Belem is a meeting of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, a toothless, 45-year-old alliance that has met only three times before.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has said he hopes the Belem summit will awaken the long-dormant organization. Silva said the event goes beyond the climate talks and will also address how countries will prevent the Amazon from reaching a tipping point, in which the former forest releases carbon dioxide out of control. According to some scientists, this will happen when 20% to 25% of the forest is destroyed. The resulting decline in rainfall would transform more than half of the Amazon to tropical savannah, with immense biodiversity loss.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has sought to position himself as a leader in global climate efforts and protection of the Amazon. At a recent meeting in the Colombian town of Leticia, environment ministers from the eight countries agreed to come up with a joint strategy to prevent the Amazon from reaching a “point of no return.” Petro has also spoken of the need to shift away from hydrocarbons, one of the main causes of climate change, yet oil is one of his nation’s chief exports.
Cross-border cooperation in the Amazon has historically been scant, undermined by low trust, ideological differences and the lack of government presence. But budding environmental consciousness and widespread recognition of the Amazon’s importance in arresting climate change has invigorated the drive for a paradigm shift.
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