This Amazon Cooperation Agreement Organization (OTCA)A long-delayed meeting that tests the distance between the words and actions of their leaders began in Belém do Pará, in northeastern Brazil, this Tuesday. related to air emergencies. 13 years after the last date, things got worse as a result of what happened. climate change. Before the meeting of this intergovernmental body formed in the late 1960s, common criteria protection of forests and disagreements not only within the host government, but between its president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and Colombian Gustavo Petro. First, he still believes in the possibilities of the industry. hydrocarbons as the engine of economic activity while your colleague thinks otherwise.
Beyond this inconsistency, Lula was the organizer of this summit during COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt) last year. What he’s looking for is that Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela “for the first time, argue in a dominant way promoting the integrated development of the region with social inclusion And climate responsibility“.
According to Lula, the implementation of ACTO has to do with the world and especially the EU, extreme right lagging behind and aiming to reach a goal zero deforestation possible in seven years. As an indication of this desire, he invited the President of France. Emmanuel Macron, who did not eventually go to Belém do Pará. The change in Brazil is already embodied in the promise of German and Norwegian donations aimed at preserving the strategic biome.
Before officially starting the meeting, Lula used the social network X (Twitter) to announce it in the first six months of his third government. deforestation reduced by 42%. Likewise, the PT leader plans to announce the demarcation of the two indigenous regions. In his assessment of his first year in office, Petro assured that Colombia had “saved” 40,000 hectares of vegetation in 2022 alone, compared to the previous year.
zero deforestation
The draft of the ACTO final document leaked by environmental NGOs, Brazil and Colombia “Highlight the urgency of agreeing on common goals for 2030 to fight with deforestation“. It has been proposed for this purpose”eliminate and stop the progress of illegal activities promoting natural resource extraction and land use planning approaches and the transition to sustainable models”. Bolivia, where 8.1% of total Amazonia is concentrated. on that side 400,000 hectares of land lost last year The number of forests, which is 32% more than in 2021. PeruThe hectares lost in 2022 were 144,682. Since 2020, when deforestation reached a dire ceiling (203,000 hectares), 14 environmental leaders have been assassinated. Nicolas Maduro He avoided traveling to Belém do Pará due to an ear problem. He also had nothing good to show off. This illegal mining wreaks havoc
Similar EcuadorPresident Guillermo Lasso’s days are numbered. Early elections will be held in that country on 20 August. His short tenure was marked by a comprehensive oil policy. A public consultation must decide on the day of the elections whether to extract the oil reserves of the Amazon Yasuní.
oil, sticking point
And Oil It is one of the most difficult axes to agree on among ACTO member states. According to the newspaper Paulista folhainclusion oil exploration ban on Amazon “became a sticking point” Between Brazil and Colombia. “While Petro favors this idea, Lula is unwilling to commit and recommends that the agreement focus on ending deforestation.” Lula and Environment Minister, marina silva. State-owned Petrobras wants to drill wells in the Foz do Amazonas basin on Brazil’s so-called equatorial rim. Mining and Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira also shares this goal. Petrobras has sought permission from the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) to drill the seabed. The first report from Ibama was negative. Lula doesn’t want to give up on this project. “I’ll tell them they can keep dreaming and I want to keep dreaming.” He said Ibama’s conclusions were not conclusive. “We’re discussing it.” According to Lula, “there is no disagreement within the government, there is a natural debate,” Silveira said.
According to influential columnist Míriam Leitão for the Rio de Janeiro newspaper or the worldLula is faced with an internal fork in the road and external influences. “You can’t defend the Amazon and at the same time support rural approval of more pesticides.s, amnesty for land grab, and loosening of environmental licenses.” It also faces other dilemmas, such as paving the federal highway that crosses the Amazon, “not to mention the major conflict point of oil exploration.”
Beyond these discussions, the ACTO will conclude its joint document this Wednesday, and its conclusions will be presented to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (as well as to the United Nations General Assembly in September).COP28), which will take place in December United Arab Emirates.