Amazon summit fails to set concrete targets to stop deforestation

The eight nations that share the Amazon basin have come under fire for a joint declaration agreed at their summit in Brazil.

The critics were saying it fell short of what was needed to protect the world’s largest rain forest.

“There is an awareness of the urgent need for regional cooperation to avoid the point of no return in the Amazon,’’ the document said.

The delegation agreed to create an alliance to combat deforestation, but failed to set binding targets and left the goals up to each country.

A joint air traffic control system against organised crime and better cooperation in the fields of science.

It said that finance and human rights were also promised in the declaration which was released late on Tuesday.

“The summit addressed the right issues but did not deliver what society, the private sector and academia expect, a set of concrete short- and medium-term

actions that can change the current course,’’ Marcelo Furtado said.

Furtado is the co-founder of the Brazilian Coalition on Climate Forest and Agriculture, according to Brazilian news portal G1.

The Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation (ACTO) said it had gathered leaders from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela for a meeting in Belém.

Belem is the Brazilian port called the gateway to the Amazon River.

The summit’s host, Brazil, has both the biggest responsibility and burden to take care of the Amazon, as 60 per cent of the rain forest is in Brazil.

At the start of the meeting on Tuesday, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said it had never been more urgent to preserve the Amazon.

The goal of the meeting was to reconcile environmental protection with sustainable economic development and job creation, he said.

Lula since he assumed office in January, strong pledges were made to get Amazon deforestation down to zero by 2030.

According to him, other countries in the region have not set such ambitious goals.

The Amazon is an essential carbon sink, boasting the ability to soak up huge amounts of carbon dioxide, a decisive function in the international fight against climate change.