A total of eight South American countries have agreed to form an alliance to combat deforestation in the Amazon. The countries — Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Guyana, Venezuela and Suriname — at the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization summit vowed to stop the biggest rainforest in the world from reaching a "point of no return"

The eight member countries on Tuesday signed a joint declaration in Belem, which is at the mouth of the Amazon river. The declaration lays out a nearly 10,000-word roadmap on promoting sustainable development as well as end deforestation and combat the organised crime that fuels it.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in his opening speech of the two-day summit, emphasized that a severe worsening of the climate crisis needed action in unison, news agency AFP reported.

"It has never been so urgent," he had said.

“Rich countries that have already destroyed their forests need to take responsibility for financing our efforts to protect our peoples,” Lula said earlier in the day.

Financial Aid

In the 113-point text, the countries recognised the necessity of avoiding “a point of no return” in the Amazon, but did not make any binding commitments on hot-button issues like mineral extraction or an end to illegal deforestation, which Lula has pledged to do in Brazil by 2030.

They agreed to beef up safeguards and increase law enforcement cooperation in order to combat drug trafficking and environmental crimes. They also called for the creation of a financial mechanism to attract funding, particularly from regional and global development banks.

On the eve of the summit, a coalition of major financial institutions, including Brazil’s national development bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, pledged to support sustainable growth in the Amazon. The exact amount hasn’t been defined, but initial estimates suggest it could be as high as $25 billion, local newspapers reported.

That may also help generate the sort of private-sector financing environmental groups say is necessary to bolster foreign government aid Lula has secured, including hundreds of millions of dollars in pledged contributions from the US, UK and other nations to the Amazon Fund, a Brazil-led initiative that finances forest protection.

The importance Lula is now placing on regional cooperation reflects Brazil’s belief that a united front can help attract additional funding and avoid future sanctions, said Matias Spektor, an international relations professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Sao Paulo.

“Coalition politics are back,” he said. “The rationale in Brasilia is that Brazil should not act alone.”

Hard-to-Reach Consensus

Consensus has long eluded the commodity-dependent region where about a third of the population lives in poverty and economic development remains the primary concern. And differences between the member nations made wide-ranging agreements — including a potential pledge to join Brazil’s goal of ending illegal deforestation by the end of the decade — unlikely as the summit began.

Colombia President Gustavo Petro highlighted “disagreements” between their policies in his opening remarks, while reiterating his call for bans on new oil exploration. Lula’s government has taken a more measured approach, seeking to balance future development with its environmental aims — and is currently mired in a dispute over state-controlled oil company Petrobras’s drilling plans near the mouth of the Amazon River.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, meanwhile, oversees an oil-dependent economy and has shown little interest in curbing deforestation in the Amazon. He has also faced condemnation from the UN over human rights abuses related to the participation of state forces in gold mining.

Outside the event, dozens of Indigenous activists protested against resource extraction in the region.

Inside, Peru President Dina Boluarte urged her counterparts to remember the “human face” of the Amazon, and called on the international community to make the well-being of the forest’s estimated 30 million inhabitants — and especially its Indigenous populations — its top priority.

Brazil Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira downplayed the differences, saying the statement showed that the region could work together to protect the environment.

“I’m confident that moving forward we in the region will be able to continue calling the world’s attention to the Amazon and the need for join actions,” Vieira said.

The agreements may allow for some progress to combat an uptick in violence and criminal activity that has plagued the Amazon. A UN report released in June indicated that significant parts of the forest are “wracked by a complex ecosystem of drug crime,” with proceeds from sophisticated trafficking operations funneling into illegal logging, ranching and gold mining.

Lula has unveiled series of new environmental safeguards and deployed the military to target networks of wildcat miners on Indigenous lands. The agreement includes a plan to create a central police office in the Brazilian city of Manaus to foster law enforcement cooperation among the eight countries.

Populations that face similar challenges throughout the region could benefit from a coordinated approach, said Beto Verissimo, the co-founder of Imazon, an environmental think tank in Belem.

With the joint agreement in hand, Lula is likely to continue pushing to convince Brazil’s neighbors that they are stronger as a bloc, especially amid debates over how much donor countries and major development banks should help fund green transitions in low- and middle-income nations.

The urgency of climate change means that “all the rules are being contested,” said Ilona Szabo, president of the Igarape Institute, a think tank in Rio de Janeiro. “Brazil is keen to negotiate the importance of the region.”

With inputs from Bloomberg

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