Amazon Countries Establish New Alliance to Fight Deforestation

Eight Amazon countries agreed to establish an alliance to fight the heavy deforestation in the Amazon, on Wednesday.

They vowed in their summit in Brazil to stop the world's biggest rainforest from reaching "a point of no return."

The Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) adopted a “new and ambitious shared agenda” to save the Amazon rainforest.

Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela signed a joint declaration in Belem, on the shores of the Amazon River, declaring a road map to promote sustainable development, end deforestation and fight organized crime.

The 8 countries said in the joint declaration: "We have decided to establish the Amazon Alliance to Combat Deforestation, with the objective of... preventing the Amazon from reaching a point of no return."

Environmentalists and Indigenous groups demanded adopting Brazil’s pledge to end illegal deforestation by 2030 and Colombia’s pledge to halt new oil exploration.

Marcio Astrini, the head of the Climate Observatory: “It’s a first step, but there isn’t a concrete decision, just a list of promises."

He added: “The planet is melting, temperature records are being broken every day … it is not possible for eight Amazonian leaders to fail to put in a declaration in bold letters that deforestation must be zero,” he added.