{"id":105956,"date":"2025-08-24T06:00:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T06:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/105956\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T06:00:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T06:00:15","slug":"top-officials-of-amazon-nations-meet-in-colombia-to-push-joint-rainforest-protection-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/105956\/","title":{"rendered":"Top officials of Amazon nations meet in Colombia to push joint rainforest protection plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) \u2014 Presidents from South America\u2019s Amazon nations gathered Friday<\/a> alongside Indigenous leaders to agree on a joint plan to safeguard the world\u2019s largest rainforest \u2014 a vast region seen as crucial to slowing global warming. <\/p>\n

Gathering in Colombia\u2019s capital of Bogota, the presidents of Colombia<\/a>, Brazil<\/a> and Bolivia<\/a> joined the vice president of Ecuador<\/a> and other top officials from Amazon nations. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no individual exit from the climate crisis,” Brazil’s President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva<\/a> said during his declaration. “We need a new global governance with the authority to make countries keep their promises.\u201d <\/p>\n

They signed off on the \u201cDeclaration of Bogota,\u201d a political blueprint to be formally adopted by Amazon nations, setting out a common vision for deeper cooperation across the region, which sprawls over more than 2.5 million square miles (6.7 million square kilometers). <\/p>\n

Ecuador\u2019s Vice President Mar\u00eda Jos\u00e9 Pinto urged leaders to move beyond \u201cgood intentions\u201d to \u201cconcrete actions\u201d to protect the Amazon, calling it both the region\u2019s responsibility and its legacy to the world. She said work must be led from the territories, listening to communities and respecting ancestral knowledge, and stressed the rainforest should be central to the global agenda because \u201cwhat happens here determines the future of everyone.\u201d <\/p>\n

On the eve of the summit, foreign ministers from the eight members of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization \u2014 a little-known, decades-old intergovernmental body linking all the countries of the Amazon basin \u2014 approved 20 resolutions. They range from a new regional Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Mechanism to initiatives on food security, climate risk and institutional strengthening. <\/p>\n

Scientists say the Amazon acts as a massive carbon sink absorbing more carbon dioxide than it releases and plays a key role in regulating rainfall patterns far beyond South America. Its loss could accelerate global warming and disrupt agriculture as far away as the U.S. Midwest and parts of Europe, while threatening the survival of thousands of species found nowhere else on Earth. <\/p>\n

Top officials also met on Thursday to review progress on commitments made at the Belem Declaration, a 2023 agreement signed in Brazil that pledged closer coordination on protecting the Amazon, including policies on deforestation, climate change and Indigenous rights. <\/p>\n

Each ACTO country will appoint two government delegates and two Indigenous delegates to the body, which will meet annually and can convene extraordinary sessions. Decisions must be made unanimously. <\/p>\n

Oswaldo Muca, who represents Colombia\u2019s Indigenous Amazon communities, told The Associated Press on the sidelines of Friday’s event that his community is \u201ccommitted to safeguarding our territory and the Amazon, protecting it and caring for it.\u201d He said they oppose mining and oil exploration because \u201cit destroys our territory, destroys humanity and destroys life.\u201d <\/p>\n

Muca welcomed the ministers\u2019 approval of a direct financing mechanism for Indigenous peoples, calling it \u201cthe only way to avoid reaching the point of no return\u201d and noting that \u201cwe are now part of that treaty mechanism.\u201d <\/p>\n

Asked if he believed the heads of state would follow through, Muca said they had \u201ctalked a lot about saving the Amazon,\u201d but insisted that \u201cour words must be more than political speeches \u2026 they must be real, concrete actions.\u201d <\/p>\n

ACTO Secretary-General Mart\u00edn von Hildebrand said that political will and unity among member countries are essential to protecting the basin\u2019s forests, rivers and biodiversity \u2014 resources that store vast amounts of carbon and help regulate the planet\u2019s climate. <\/p>\n

Peruvian Indigenous leader Julio Cusurichi, attending the event, said: “We are asking countries to take immediate action because deforestation and pollution are advancing, and the impacts of climate change are severe.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Associated Press\u2019 climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) \u2014 Presidents from South America\u2019s Amazon nations gathered Friday alongside Indigenous leaders to agree on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[70189,4869,20355,192,6733,70190,79],"class_list":["post-105956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-amazon-rainforest","tag-climate-crisis","tag-deforestation","tag-environment","tag-global-warming","tag-indigenous-leaders","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}