Amazon nations fail to agree on deforestation goal at summit
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[August 09, 2023]
By Jake Spring
BELEM, Brazil (Reuters) -Eight Amazon nations agreed to a list of
unified environmental policies and measures to bolster regional
cooperation at a major rainforest summit in Brazil on Tuesday, but
failed to agree on a common goal for ending deforestation.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has staked his
international reputation on improving Brazil's environmental standing,
had been pushing for the region to unite behind a common policy of
ending deforestation by 2030 - one he has already adopted.
Instead, the joint declaration issued on Tuesday in the Brazilian city
of Belem created an alliance for combating forest destruction, with
countries left to pursue their own individual deforestation goals.
The failure of the eight Amazon countries to agree on a pact to protect
their own forests points to the larger, global difficulties of forging
an agreement to combat climate change. Many scientists say policymakers
are acting too slowly to head off catastrophic global warming.
"The planet is melting, we are breaking temperature records every day.
It is not possible that, in a scenario like this, eight Amazonian
countries are unable to put in a statement - in large letters - that
deforestation needs to be zero," said Marcio Astrini of environmental
lobby group Climate Observatory.
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Lula and other national leaders left Tuesday's meeting without
commenting on the declaration. Presidents from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia
and Peru attended the summit, while Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname and
Venezuela sent other top officials.
Bolivia and Venezuela are the only Amazon countries not to sign onto a
2021 agreement among more than 100 countries to work toward halting
deforestation by 2030. A Brazilian government source told Reuters in the
lead up to the summit that Bolivia, where forest destruction is surging,
is a hold-out on the issue.
Bolivian President Luis Arce did not address the 2030 commitment in his
speech on Tuesday.
Brazil's Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said in a press briefing that the
issue of deforestation "in no way whatsoever will divide the region" and
cited "an understanding about deforestation" in the declaration, without
elaborating.
This week's summit brought together the Amazon Cooperation Treaty
Organization (ACTO) for the first time in 14 years, with plans to reach
a broad agreement on issues from fighting deforestation to financing
sustainable development.
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![](../images/080923PIX/news_f7.jpg)
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva addresses the audience at the summit of the Amazon Cooperation
Treaty Organization (ACTO), in Belem, Brazil August 8, 2023. Ricardo
Stuckert/Brazil Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
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But tensions emerged in the lead up to the summit around diverging
positions on deforestation and oil development.
Fellow Amazon countries also rebuffed Colombia's leftist President
Gustavo Petro's ongoing campaign to end new oil development in the
Amazon. In his speech on Tuesday, Petro likened the left's desire to
keep drilling for oil to the right-wing denial of climate science.
He said the idea of making a gradual "energy transition" away from
fossil fuels was a way to delay the work needed to stop climate
change.
Brazil is weighing whether to develop a potentially huge offshore
oil find near the mouth of the Amazon River and the country's
northern coast, which is dominated by rainforest.
"What we are discussing in Brazil today is research of an extensive
and large area - in my vision perhaps the last frontier of oil and
gas before ... the energy transition," Brazil's Energy Minister
Alexandre Silveira told reporters after Petro's speech.
Silveira said they should conduct research into what oil is there in
order to make a decision on the issue.
Beyond deforestation, the summit also did not fix a deadline on
ending illegal gold mining, although leaders agreed to cooperate on
the issue and to better combat cross-border environmental crime.
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The final joint statement, called the Belem Declaration, strongly
asserted indigenous rights and protections, while also agreeing to
cooperate on water management, health, common negotiating positions
at climate summits, and sustainable development.
As Reuters previously reported, the declaration additionally
established a science body to meet annually and produce
authoritative reports on science related to the Amazon rainforest,
akin to the United Nations' International Panel on Climate Change.
(Reporting by Jake Spring; Additional reporting by Steven Grattan;
Editing by Brad Haynes, Rosalba O'Brien, Jason Neely, Peter Graff,
Aurora Ellis and Richard Chang)
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