Presidents of Colombia, Brazil pledge cooperation to protect Amazon
File photo.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Saturday (July 8) pledged cooperation to protect the Amazon rainforest. According to a report by the news agency Reuters, Petro and Silva discussed the regional coordination to fight deforestation and protect the Amazon during a summit in Colombia's Leticia city.
The two leaders called on rich countries to cough up funds to help South American countries preserve the rainforest.
"We will soon establish an international police cooperation centre for the Amazon in Manaus and create an integrated air traffic control system, which will also be important to dismantle the route used by organised crime. We all suffer from the presence of criminals involved in illegal logging, mining, and fishing on the vast expanse of public land," Brazilian President Lula da Silva said during Saturday's summit.
"Today, the approach of saving those forests to save life continues with a discussion: how much will they pay us for it? Why not do the same as those in the North did? The northern people wiped out the forests and killed the indigenous people. Is that development? Do we have to do the same? Or is there an entirely different perspective opening up? There is another kind of development that has to do with not cutting down the tree," Colombian President Petro said.
Deforestation of Amazon falls by one-third under Lula's leadership: Govt
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On Thursday, the Brazilian government said that deforestation of the Amazon fell by one-third in the first six months of President Lula da Silva's administration compared to the same period last year.
The 33.6 per cent drop is based on satellite images captured by the National Institute of Space Research. The institute said that from January this year till June, 2,649 square kilometres of rainforest were felled. In the same period in 2022 when Jair Bolsonaro was serving as president, 3,988 square kilometres of rainforest were felled.
Addressing a press conference on Thursday, Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva said, "We have reached a steady downward trend in deforestation of the Amazon." Silva added the good results stemmed from Lula's policy of fighting climate change and deforestation of the Amazon.
(With inputs from agencies)
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