SHARM EL SHEIKH, Nov 9 (NNN-Xinhua) — Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday proposed reviving the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) to protect South America’s Amazon rainforest.
Addressing a High-Level Regional Dialogue on the theme of the “Amazon as a pillar of climate and life balance,” held in Egypt, Maduro said reactivating the bloc would be key to conserving the forest.
“I think that the first step should be to revive the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization … with its historical capacity to monitor the Amazon and its number of proposals for recovering” the embattled forest, Maduro said.
It is a responsibility of the South American countries “to stop the destruction of the Amazon and initiate a process of coordinated, efficient, conscious, active recovery of the Amazon,” said the president.
Maduro hailed as “good news” the fact that Colombia and Brazil elected Gustavo Petro and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, respectively, as heads of state, noting their commitment to the preservation of the Amazon.
The dialogue was held as part of the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is taking place in Egypt.
Meanwhile, Colombian President Gustavo Petro called for forming an alliance to protect the Amazon, the planet’s biggest tropical forest.
“We are determined to revitalize the Amazon rainforest to give humanity an important victory in the fight against climate change,” Petro said at the UN climate summit, which is being held in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Petro called for the involvement of the United States, “the country that pollutes the most” on the American continent, while the south of the landmass is “the sponge that absorbs the most CO2.”
He said his country will allocate $200 million a year over the next two decades to save the Amazon and appealed for the solidarity of multilateral organizations and big countries in the world.
“One of the issues which could bring consensus between us, Africa and part of Asia is (a mechanism for the) forgiveness of (national) debt (as a means) for (financing) climate action,” where the IMF “has a role to play” together with the developed countries of the world, he said.
The two South American leaders celebrated the return of Brazil’s leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to power after defeating far-right incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro, a climate change denier who was criticized during his term in office for allowing the largest deforestation of the rainforest in years.
“Brazil’s entry into this agreement is fundamental and strategic. We have enough strength to propose to the world something positive, not a failure,” said Petro.
Maduro and Petro were the only Latin American leaders who attended this edition of COP27. — NNN-XINHUA
