MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Regional leaders convening in Brazil to prevent rainforest destruction

“We have two presidents who arrive with strong commitments: Colombia's president talking about zero oil, and Lula talking about zero deforestation,” Silva added

Leaders from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela, which make up the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) are to convene Tuesday and Wednesday in Belém, the capital of the Brazilian state of Pará to discuss a new development model to put an end to the cycle of destruction that is devastating the largest tropical forest on the planet.

It will be the fourth such gathering and the first since 2009 for this bloc created in 1995. All heads of state are expected to attend the event, except Ecuador's Guillermo Lasso and Suriname's Chan Santokhi, who declined the invitation for internal political reasons.

The summit comes at a time when the Amazon forest is undergoing a serious crisis: high deforestation rates, illegal mining, the growing presence of drug trafficking, and harassment of indigenous peoples are some of the main concerns of member countries.

“The world needs to see this meeting as a historic framework for the discussion of the climate issue,” said Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the days leading up to the meeting.

According to Brazilian sources, the so-called Belém Declaration, which was being finalized Monday, will consist of some 130 points and will include a plan to conserve the standing forest.

On Tuesday, the leaders will share their views on this vast territory of 6.3 million square kilometers, home to the world's largest watershed and home to some 50 million people living in precarious situations.

“There is an understanding among all the presidents that the Amazon cannot reach the point of no return. To reach this point would mean that the rainforest has lost its full capacity for regeneration and is irreversibly heading towards its transformation into a savannah, a fact that would have terrible consequences for the region,” Brazil's Environment Minister Marina Silva underlined while specialists already claim this process of “savanization” is already being observed in some areas of the ecosystem, based on the behavior of certain animal species.

“Each country has its own dynamics, we do not work with the imposition of thought, it is a process of progressive consensus,” Silva also said Monday.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro's defense of an Amazon economy without oil also clashes with the reality of producing countries such as Venezuela and Brazil, which even has in its sights a new and controversial exploratory frontier in front of the Amazon River delta.

“We have two presidents who arrive with strong commitments: Colombia's president talking about zero oil, and Lula talking about zero deforestation,” Silva added.