Brazil: Brazil’s President, Mr. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, will attend the ‘Amazon Summit’ next week in the world’s biggest rainforest, which is a key protector against climate change.
Mr. Lula stated ahead of the Summit that private businesses will be asked to help with the reforestation of 30 million hectares of degraded land.
The Summit is organised by the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO). The eight countries, including Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela, of the ACTO will be in Belem, at the mouth of the Amazon River, from 7th to 8th August 2023.
ACTO was established in 1978 to promote the preservation of the Amazon basin and regulate Amazonian development through cooperation.
The summit’s primary focus is to discuss the development of policies to protect the rainforest, which is being badly damaged by deforestation. It will be the first meeting of ACTO since 2009. The summit will also concentrate on forest conservation and security along the borders.
The destruction of the rainforest had been urged during former President Mr. Jair Bolsonaro’s term. Mr. Bolsonaro reportedly presided over an increase of more than 75 percent in annual deforestation versus the previous decade.
According to official figures, deforestation in Brazil’s 60 percent share of the Amazon fell by 33.6 percent year-on-year from January to June of 2023, the first six months of Lula’s tenure.
The 77-year-old Lula, who had been the president of Brazil from 2003 to 2010, also repeated his desire to help forge a peace deal for Ukraine. Both Russia and Ukraine are in the ‘I’m going to win’ stage. In the meantime, people are dying, the President commented.
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