“The Amazon is in crisis: Its forests are threatened due to deforestation, fires and degradation; surface water has been lost; and rivers are increasingly disconnected and polluted. This immense pressure, if not reduced or stopped, will irreversibly damage the Amazon and the planet in general in the very near future,” reads the Living Amazon Report of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Among the speeches offered by different world leaders at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the one by the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, stood out, who, in addition to stating that these conventions have not generated concrete and immediate actions to alleviate the climate emergency, called for the establishment of a transnational alliance to guarantee the protection and conservation of the Amazon rainforest.

After Petro's announcement, in which it also committed Colombia to a contribution of $200 million over the next 20 years for the Amazon protection fund, which would initially have the support of Venezuela and Brazil, WWF presented the report that confirms that the jungle requires immediate action to stop the current path of destruction.

“A fund could be a good idea, but what we need is to strengthen the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (OTCA) and think about a just transition process for the Amazon. If we continue with the current rates of deforestation, it could be an ecosystem that emits, rather than captures, and aggravated by the fact that public policies, especially those of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, and even Evo Morales in Bolivia, have led to deforestation and the burning of forests to promote livestock activity in those two countries," Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, leader of Climate and Energy at WWF International and former president of COP20, told DW, recalling the existence of this regional treaty that dates back to the 70s.

Las amenazas que enfrenta la Amazonía no se detienen: NECESITAMOS MEDIDAS URGENTES para proteger el 80% del bosque tropical más grande del mundo para el año 2025. Conoce las soluciones presentadas en el Informe Amazonía Viva 2022: https://t.co/TAwYYPIG15 | #COP27 pic.twitter.com/KT5FnQkeLA

— Descubre WWF (@WWFnoticias) November 10, 2022

Summit of presidents in 2023?

To delve further into the proposal and reaffirm the commitments made at COP27, the Colombian President called on world leaders to participate in a summit of presidents next year.

“If Colombia proposes the meeting of presidents in the Amazon in 2023, and Lula adheres to it, that generates pressure in countries that have not yet joined the 80x25 initiative, such as Ecuador and Guyana. Creating a road map from the presidents that includes indigenous peoples, breaks the paradigm of seeing them as beneficiaries, to start treating them as partners in climate change issues," Bryan Ludeña, COICA spokesman, told the same outlet.

The report

The report, which comes after a new series of broken promises after the COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, compiles the existing threats and the possible solutions that are needed to preserve the lungs of the planet, emphasizing that the loss of the Amazon rainforest implies not being able to meet the goal set by the Paris Agreement to limit global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

WWF's Living Amazon Report 2022 proposes strategies to reverse current losses and outlines ways for governments, the private sector and citizens to take urgent action for the Amazon and its conservation.

“This includes the 80x25 initiative, with which it is intended to conserve 80% of the Amazon by 2025. The plan was proposed by the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin, adopted as a motion of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2021 and supported by WWF, but it will require greater commitment at all levels to stop the climate crisis,” highlights the organization.

See the full report by clicking here.