Can Belem Declaration really save Amazon from deforestation?

18 / 08 / 2023

By Marwa Nassar - -

The Belem Declaration united Amazon countries – Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela – with forming the Amazon Alliance to Fight Deforestation to save the planet’s lungs, however the declaration is seen as falling short to offer clear and concrete implementation measures.

The declaration called for establishing the alliance to promote regional cooperation on fighting deforestation, with the purpose of stopping the Amazon region from reaching the point of no return, acknowledging and promoting the compliance of national goals, including the ones related to zero deforestation through elimination of illegal logging, by strengthening the implementation of forest legislation of the State Parties, sustainable forest management, integrated fire management for recovery and increase in native vegetation stocks by means of financial and non-financial incentives; and other instruments for conservation and sustainable forest management, promotion of ecosystem connectivity, and exchange of technologies, experiences and information to facilitate prevention, monitoring and control actions, including promotion of regional programs to support forest control, capacity building for managers and park rangers stationed in protected areas, and the strengthening of Amazonian ecosystems in face of the impacts of climate change.

It also urged strengthening the participation of an Amazon perspective in the Platform of Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in coordination with the Amazon Mechanism for Indigenous Peoples.

The declaration also exhorted promoting the implementation of climate change adaptation programs in States Parties boosting access to external non-reimbursable financing, with a view to mitigating vulnerabilities of indigenous peoples and traditional and local communities, according to national realities and plans.

The Belem declaration also called for establishing – under the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) – the Amazon Network of Forest Authorities for strengthening the implementation of ACTO’s Forest Program and relevant actions under the Amazonian Strategic Cooperation Agenda, with the purpose of improving forest management and local capacities, exchanging technology breakthroughs, establishing sustainable development projects, and promoting access to funding for those projects, among others.

It also urged promoting under ACTO’s Forest Program the exchange of good practices on national regulatory frameworks on the environment regarding regulation of land use, so as to strengthen planning and land use mechanisms and promote acknowledgment for the lands and territories of indigenous peoples and local and traditional communities, including their efforts towards conservation.

The declaration also called for developing a common strategy to prevent and mitigate the effects of the El Niño phenomenon in the Amazon Region, in conformity with the national legislations of the State Parties, recommending ACTO to explore the exchange of scientific information with international organizations such as the Permanent Commission for the South Pacific (CPPS, in Spanish) and the International Committee for the El Nino Phenomenon (CIIFEN).

Cristián Samper, the Managing Director and Leader for Nature Solutions at the Bezos Earth Fund, said “Brazil’s Amazon Summit marks a significant milestone, reuniting Amazon country leaders after a 14-year gap. The Belém Declaration promotes cooperation, created a new alliance to combat deforestation, recognizes the role and rights of Indigenous and local communities, and established a scientific body to report annually on the state of the Amazon forest.”

He added, however, that “While the summit’s declaration falls short of outlining clear, measurable goals, we welcome calls for greater cooperation and a roadmap to fight deforestation. Specifically, we call for a commitment to halt deforestation and expand protected and conserved areas to 80 percent by 2030.”

He added that “tropical forests play a critical role in our climate as carbon stocks and sinks. We must protect them, restore them, and support a new economy based on the value of living, standing forests. The world must unite to save the Amazon and support the livelihoods of the approximately 47 million people living there, including 2 million Indigenous people. They are the region’s longtime guardians and are critical to protecting its future.”

“The Bezos Earth Fund has committed $1 billion for conservation. So far, we have allocated more than $200 million to local and international organizations working in the Amazon and Tropical Andean region to advance climate and nature solutions, halt deforestation, and create alternative paths to prosperity for people living in the Amazon,” he highlighted.

The BBC has also quoted climate activists as saying that the deal lacked concrete measures at a time “when the planet is melting”.

“Temperature records are broken every day, it’s not possible that under those circumstances, the eight presidents of the Amazon nations can’t include a line in the declaration stating, in bold letters, that deforestation needs to be zero, that it won’t be tolerated any more,” Márcio Astrini of the Climate Observatory group said.

Meanwhile, ecologist Paulo Moutinho, who studies deforestation at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute, “Given the urgency of the climate crisis, it is surprising that the final declaration does not include a plan or any concrete directive on the main issues the Amazon faces,” according to Science.

“It was nice to see this summit putting science on the table. It shows a political will that was not there before,” said climate scientist Luciana Gatti of the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research. But for her, the lack of specific goals, especially for deforestation, undermine an opportunity for the Amazonian nations to speak with a collective voice at the 20th Conference of the Parties (COP), the United Nations’ climate change meeting slated for November.

Carlos Nobre, a climatologist and chair of the Science Panel for the Amazon, a group of scientists dedicated to studying the region, expected more ambitious goals on fighting deforestation. He said the Amazon is close to a “tipping point”—when the carbon emitted by the forest will surpass the carbon absorbed by the trees, transforming the region into a dry savanna and, in the process, releasing tons of carbon into the atmosphere. “The risk of a tipping point is not in the distant future; the Amazon is on a cliff edge,” Nobre said.

Despite concerns that the Belem declaration would not attain the aspired goals, the world is hoping that the Amazon countries would join hands to save Amazon forests.