Leaders of Amazonian countries to analyze regional situation in Brazil

Brasilia, Aug 7 (RGC) The IV meeting of heads of state and governments of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) will take place next Tuesday in the Brazilian city of Belém where leaders will advocate for a sustainable development model.

"We are going to take care of the Amazon. The next few days will be a time of hard work among the countries of the region to focus on sustainable development that takes care of the forests and the people," said Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela are members of the organization created in 1995, whose heads of state have not met since 2009. On this occasion, the presidents of Ecuador and Suriname will not attend due to internal problems.

"The world needs to see this meeting as a historic framework for the discussion of the climate issue", said Lula previously, in the midst of a context marked by high deforestation rates in the lungs of the planet.

According to the Monitoring the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), the Amazon rainforest has lost more than 85 million hectares to deforestation, representing 13 percent of its original area.

"We will continue to demand money from rich nations for compensation to keep the rainforest standing and sustainable economic development for the millions of people living in the Amazon rainforest. We will be tough on deforestation and we want the new green industrialization to take place in the Amazon", the Brazilian leader stressed.

For their part, the foreign ministers will hold a closed-door meeting this Monday to prepare the so-called Belém Declaration, which in 130 will propose a plan for the conservation of the Amazon biome. (Source: Telesur)