Brasília – One of the most important meetings of the heads of state of the Amazon region countries – the Amazon Summit – will take place on August 8 and 9 in Belém, Brazil. It is intended for designing policies and strategies for the sustainable development of the region. Pictured, an Andean New Year ritual in Bolivia, an Amazon region country.
In the warm-up event Amazon Dialogues ahead of the summit, representatives of entities, social movements, academia, research centers and government agencies from Brazil and other Amazon region countries will meet from August 4 to 6 to come up with suggestions for rebuilding sustainable public policies for the region. The result of such discussions will be presented to the heads of state during the Summit meeting.
The meeting was held by the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), an intergovernmental institution whose members are Brazil, Bolivia Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela, which signed the Amazon Cooperation Treaty in 1978 to create the sole socio-environmental bloc in Latin America.
For the executive director of ACTO, Brazilian retired diplomat Carlos Alfredo Lazary, the two events will represent “an inclusive Amazonian voice to be heard by all countries.” “I believe the results from the Summit will strengthen its regional dimension in the discourse of heads of state for other events like the COP28 in the United Arab Emirates [from November 30 to December 12] and G20 [group of leading and emerging economies] meetings,” the ACTO’s director told Agência Brasil.
According to him, the Amazon region countries are aware they have to show their capacity to work together for drafting proposals that could bring in a great deal of investments to the region for projects that, if well built, can spark international interest. “I believe it will result in support and strengthening of the ACTO’s regional projects that prioritize international resources,” he said.
Translation by Guilherme Miranda
