Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro proposed to unite the efforts of peoples and governments to save the Amazon. “We will make concrete proposals so that the international community and influential governments of the world commit themselves to jointly finance the restoration of the Amazon,” Maduro said.
He also invited Colombia and Brazil to hold a South American summit in defense of the Amazon, whose forests are called the “lungs of the world,” TeleSur reports. At the same time, Maduro noted that he had already discussed this proposal with Colombian President Gustavo Petro and the newly elected President of Brazil, popular left-wing politician Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The result was an agreement to jointly resume actions to protect the “lungs of the planet” from an environmental disaster.
The Amazon rainforest is the world’s largest rainforest, located on a vast, almost flat plain that covers almost the entire Amazon basin. The forest itself covers 5.5 million square kilometers – half of the total area of tropical forests remaining on the planet. Captures the territory of nine states of South America.
It should be noted that one of the most serious claims against Jair Bolsonaro, who lost the presidential election in Brazil, was that he allowed the growth of illegal logging in the Amazon. And he did not take measures to protect the rights of the indigenous people of the Amazon, including in the field of ecology. The Amazon is rapidly losing forests, including during fires. Forest areas the size of a football field disappear every six seconds. In addition to fires, deforestation causes enormous damage to the Earth’s ecology, this is confirmed by the non-profit organization Foundation Norway.
The Brazilian Amazon lost 1,180 square kilometers of forest in May 2021 alone, Brazil’s National Space Research Institute said. In April, 580.55 square kilometers of selva were devastated, and in March – 367.6 square kilometers. And this process continues.
Experts are also sounding the alarm because global warming could turn the Amazon forest into a savannah. And this will endanger the indigenous population. It is indigenous communities that are best guarding forests, which is a defining challenge in reducing carbon emissions, comments TeleSUR.tv.
Maduro’s initiative was commented specifically for EADaily by Enrique Dominguez, Special Secretary for Latin America of the BRICS+ International Municipal Forum:
“The initiative of President Nicolás Maduro to hold a summit in defense of the Amazon is very important at the moment. While leaders of other countries define common climate and sustainable development issues, the Amazon forest countries will lead the process of jointly developing strategies to achieve the goals already set. The main one is to save the “lungs of the planet”. And that means saving the whole world. Moreover, this summit could be the starting point for a broad agenda to reformat Latin American integration, which will now receive a new impetus with the election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil. A strong and active leftist pool of presidents is being formed in the region. And social and environmental issues have always been the strong point of left-wing politicians in Latin America.”
The announced summit will certainly discuss the problems of maintaining ecological balance in the Brazilian Amazon. For the safety and development of the indigenous peoples of these places depends on this.
