Seven South-American nations sign Amazon protection pact
Presidents and Ministers from seven Amazon countries have met in Colombia to agree on measures to protect the Amazon, under threat from wildfires and rampant deforestation. Recent forest fires have destroyed large parts of the world’s largest tropical rainforest. More than 80,000 fires have broken out in the Amazon rainforest this year.
Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru and Suriname signed a pact, setting up a disaster response network and satellite monitoring. At a summit in Colombia, they also agreed to work on reforestation. The agreement comes after Brazil faced widespread international criticism and pressure over its handling of major forest fires last month.
Conservationists claimed that President Jair Bolsonaro’s moves to weaken environmental safeguards encouraged farmers and industry to significantly increase deforestation and set fires more aggressively.
Meanwhile, Brazil’s leading meat export industry group and agricultural businesses have joined an environmental campaign calling for an end to deforestation in public lands in the Amazon and demanding government action.
Several international retailers have said they are suspending purchases of Brazilian leather because of the links between cattle ranching and the fires devastating parts of the Amazon rainforest.
Amazon is a vital carbon store that slows down the pace of global warming, and 60 per cent of it is located in Brazil.
