Amazon countries determined to preserve their forests – DW – 07/09/2023

The eight member states of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (OTCA) decided on Saturday (07.08.2023) in Leticia, Colombia, to promote urgent measures to preserve the largest tropical forest in the world.

said the President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who concluded with his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro a day-long technical-scientific meeting promoted by Bogota, with the aim of holding the fourth ACTO summit in August in the Brazilian city of Belém.

ACTO delegates, made up of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela, agreed on the need to avoid crossing the point of no return in terms of the degradation of the Amazon, affected by deforestation and mineral exploitation. Oil and agricultural and animal borders.

“To preserve the Amazon, according to science, we need to keep 80% of its forests constant and not be able to go beyond 20% of deforestation, unfortunately we are already at 17%,” said the Colombian minister during the meeting. Susana Muhammad.

“Losing the Amazon, and reaching the point of no return, has irreversible consequences for global climate change,” he added.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met this Saturday to prepare for the Amazon summit next month in Brazil in an effort to accelerate conservation. Amazon We call for environmental urgency.

jc (efe, afp)