Lula defends union of Amazon countries at meeting in Colombia

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defended on Saturday (July 8), in a speech during the closing of the Amazon technical-scientific meeting in Leticia, Colombia, that the Belém Summit next month will help strenghten relations among the eight countries that are home to the world’s largest rainforest, so that they can all achieve common goals.

» For President Lula’s full speech, please click here

“Taking care of the Amazon is both a privilege and a responsibility,” he said. “It’s up to us to decide how to give our people a dignified life and how to preserve our forest and our biodiversity. The Belém Summit will be a platform for the eight Amazon countries to take on the leading role in the search for shared solutions,” said the president, who spoke alongside the president of Colombia Gustavo Petro, with whom he held a bilateral meeting.

Lula pointed out that the resumption of the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon (Plano de Ação para Prevenção e Controle do Desmatamento na Amazônia Legal/PPCDAm), in January, has already helped reduce deforestation alerts in the Amazon region by 33.6%, taking into account the six-month period in 2023 when compared to 2022. The president reiterated his commitment to zero illegal deforestation by 2030, and invited other Amazon countries to do the same.

“This is a commitment that the Amazon countries can assume together at the Belém Summit. There are many other fields in which we can cooperate. It is essential to combat hunger in the Amazon region. In all of our countries, these are the territories that have the highest rates of food insecurity,” recalled the president.

The president also spoke of joint actions in the fields of health, protection of intellectual property, protection of indigenous peoples, native peoples and defenders of the forest, in addition to the fight against organized crime in the region. To this end, he highlighted that creating an International Police Cooperation Center for the Amazon, in Manaus, and an integrated air traffic control system are priorities.

AMAZON MEETING – Over the last few days, representatives of the governments of Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela have discussed policies to ensure preservation of the rainforest as a way to combat climate change. To President Lula – who at the beginning of the week participated in the Summit of Mercosur Heads of State in Argentina –, expanding regional integration is essential for South America.

“These are two major axes of South American integration – and they are strongly intertwined. What occurs in one corner of South America has repercussions in another. This is why our cooperation is so important. Deforestation in the Amazon affects the rainfall regime in the Southern Cone, threatening the supply of water for human consumption and for economic activities,” he said.

This is why, according to the president, it’s important to strengthen regional mechanisms such as the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO). To Lula, the treaty, signed 45 years on last July 3, was created for territorial protection. Thus, ACTO must be modernized to deal with the current challenges in the region.

“There are two challenges Amazon countries have to face together. One of them is institutional, and concerns the strengthening of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization. The other is political, and refers to the construction of a new vision of sustainable development for the region,” he said. “Over all these years, we haven’t given ACTO the attention it deserves. The Belém Summit will be an opportunity for course correction.”