Western donors face fire of Amazon nations at Brazil summit

Donors from industrialised nations were under pressure on Wednesday at a top level conference on the Amazon to do more to help preserve the world's largest rainforest.

Leaders of eight South American countries have pledged to form an alliance against deforestation. © Eraldo Peres / AP

The two-day Belem Summit in northern Brazil, organised by the Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, features the eight nations in the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation (Acto).

A day after agreeing to form an alliance against deforestation, it will welcome environmental activists from Norway and Germany – the largest contributors to Brazil’s Amazon Fund for sustainable development.

Though their generosity is unlikely to be questioned, other states will come under fire. 

Luis Arce, the Bolivian president, said the Amazon has been the victim of capitalism. He told the summit on Tuesday that industrialised nations are responsible for most historic greenhouse gas emissions.

“The fact that the Amazon is such an important territory doesn’t imply that all of the responsibilities, consequences and effects of the climate crisis should fall to us, to our towns and to our economies,” Arce said.

Brigitte Collet, France’s ambassador to Brazil, is scheduled to attend the meeting on Wednesday. With the Amazon spreading into the French territory of French Guyana, she will report back to French president Emmanuel Macron.

On the eve of Collet's visit, Macron reiterated his commitment to fighting illegal operations in the Amazon.

La forêt est absolument critique dans la lutte contre le réchauffement climatique et contre la perte de biodiversité.

Mais rien qu’en 2022, quatre millions d'hectares ont disparu des forêts primaires tropicales.

Il est urgent de mettre un terme à la déforestation.…

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) August 8, 2023

"Forests are absolutely critical in the fight against global warming and biodiversity loss," Macron said.            

"But in 2022 alone, four million hectares of primary tropical forest disappeared. Deforestation must be halted as a matter of urgency.

"Many commitments have already been made: at the COP in Glasgow in 2021, we pledged to halt deforestation by 2030, and in Montreal in 2022, to save 30 percent of land and sea.

"We now need to translate these ambitions into concrete action. How can we do this? By combating the scourges of deforestation, pollution and illegal gold mining, while at the same time defending the people who live in and from the forest."

The Acto nations – Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Surinam and Venezuela – convening for only the fourth time in the organisation’s 45-year existence – demonstrated on Tuesday that they are not fully aligned on key issues.

The Belem Declaration – the gathering’s official proclamation issued on Tuesday – did not include shared commitments to zero deforestation by 2030.

Vow

Brazil and Colombia have made those pledges. Lula has said he hopes the document will be a shared call to arms at the COP 28 climate conference in November.

Another topic dividing the nations was oil.

Colombia's president Gustavo Petro called for an end to oil exploration in the Amazon – a reference to the ambivalent approach of Brazil and other oil-producing nations in the region – and said that governments must forge a path toward “decarbonized prosperity.”

“A jungle that extracts oil – is it possible to maintain a political line at that level? Bet on death and destroying life?” Petro said.

Despite disagreements among nations, there were signs of increased regional cooperation amid growing global recognition of the Amazon’s importance in arresting climate change.

Sharing a united voice – along with funneling more money into Acto – could help it serve as the region’s representative on the global stage ahead of the COP climate conference, leaders said.

“The Amazon is our passport to a new relationship with the world, a more symmetric relationship, in which our resources are not exploited to benefit few, but rather valued and put in the service of everyone,” Lula said.