South American countries stand together against deforestation in the Amazon. On Tuesday August 8, at a summit in Belem, Brazil, they decided to form an “alliance”, without setting a concrete objective. However, this meeting was presented as a “turning point” by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The creation of an entity called “Amazonian Alliance to Combat Deforestation” is stipulated in a joint declaration signed by Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. It “aims to promote regional cooperation in the fight against deforestation, to prevent the Amazon from reaching the point of no return”. If this point of no return were reached, the Amazon would emit more carbon than it absorbed, which would worsen global warming.

But contrary to the expectations of environmental organizations, this joint statement issued after the first of the two days of the summit does not present any common goal to completely eradicate deforestation, as Brazil has promised to do by here. 2030.

This document-river in 113 points lays out in detail the milestones of cooperation between the eight member countries of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (OTCA), to promote sustainable development in this vast region which is home to approximately 10% of global biodiversity. “It’s a first step, but there is no concrete decision, it’s just a list of promises,” reacted Marcio Astrini, head of the Climate Observatory, a Brazilian collective of NGOs. “While temperature records are broken every day, it is not possible that the leaders of the Amazon countries are not able to put in black and white a declaration that deforestation must be reduced to zero”, he said. – he lambasted.

Earlier in the day, he promised the summit would be “a turning point” in the fight against global warming.

His Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro for his part called for the speeches to be translated into concrete actions as soon as possible. “If we’re on the brink of extinction, if this is the decade to make decisions, what are we doing but talking?” he snapped.

Lula and Gustavo Petro are accompanied to Bélem by their counterparts from Bolivia, Colombia and Peru. Ecuador, Guyana and Suriname are represented by ministers, and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, suffering from an ear infection, was replaced at short notice by his vice-president Delcy Rodriguez.

The summit in Belém acts as a dress rehearsal for this port city of 1.3 million people in northern Brazil, which will host the 2025 UN climate conference COP30.

Other non-ACTO member countries have been invited to the summit, including France, which has Amazon territory with Guyana and will be represented on Wednesday by its ambassador in Brasilia, Brigitte Collet. “There is an urgent need to put an end to deforestation,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday on X (ex-Twitter), calling “to protect vital reserves, carbon and biodiversity, in the interest of forest countries. , their populations and the whole world”.

Returning to power in January, Lula pledged to end deforestation by 2030, which had risen sharply under his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro. Deforested land is often turned into pasture for livestock, but destruction is also caused by gold miners and timber traffickers.

But Colombian President Gustavo Petro claimed that “zero deforestation” would be “not enough”. “Science has shown us that even if we cover the whole world with trees, it will not be enough to absorb CO2 emissions […]. We must abandon fossil fuels,” he insisted. According to him, this responsibility lies above all with the “countries of the North”, while “we [the Amazon countries] must protect the sponge”, as he describes the rainforest.

But this energy transition is a more sensitive subject for major hydrocarbon producers in the Amazon region, such as Venezuela or Brazil.

On Wednesday, the summit will continue with the participation of non-ACTO member countries invited to Belem, such as France, but also Germany and Norway, main donors of the Amazon Fund.

Indonesia, the Republic of Congo and Congo-Brazzaville, which are home to vast rainforests in other continents, have also been invited.