What are the challenges facing the Amazon Alliance advocated by Petro and Maduro?

RFI - Colombian President Gustavo Petro proposed on Tuesday (8), at COP27, the creation of an alliance for the protection of the Amazon Basin, vital for the balance of the global climate. According to a new report by the NGO WWF, deforestation increased by 18% between 2020 and 2021, in Brazil alone. Nicolás Maduro, his Venezuelan counterpart, joined Petro's appeal. However, beyond good intentions, halting deforestation in the Amazon will require the suspension of several economic activities.

Raphael Morán

Deforestation is worsening in the Amazon, and to reverse this trend, Colombian President Gustavo Petro advocated for the "revitalization of the Amazon," which he described as "the sponge that absorbs the most CO2 on the continent."

The Colombian president announced that his country will dedicate US$200 million annually to protecting the Amazon rainforest. Petro received support from his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro, to coordinate a regional initiative.

However, although the Colombian president has promised to suspend oil exploration, his Venezuelan counterpart has been seeking to reactivate his country's production through the controversial Orinoco Mining Arc (AMO) since 2016. This mining project covers 70.000 square kilometers of forest.

While in Colombia Petro seeks to advance the energy transition, in Venezuela, on the contrary, the oil-based model is exacerbated, according to Antonio de Lisio, geographer and coordinator of the Alliance for Climate Action in Venezuela.

"While Colombia - which currently produces more oil than Venezuela (exceeding 900 barrels per day compared to less than 700 in Venezuela) - reduces or does not grant new concessions, Venezuela, in its current development model, fosters increased dependence on oil and the extractive mining economy," says the geographer.

“We have always had gold among the resources that have been valued. However, we have never had a megaproject like the Orinoco Mining Arc, and the damage being caused to the protected natural areas of the Amazon and Venezuelan Guiana by mining is unprecedented,” emphasizes Lisio, underlining that civil society is requesting, in the Venezuelan Supreme Court of Justice, the “repeal of the decree that creates the Orinoco Mining Arc.” 

Biggest challenge for the new Lula government

According to Lisio, Lula should be the next president Petro consults about the Amazon Alliance. 

In addition to oil extraction and mining in Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia, the Amazon rainforest suffers from illegal logging, mainly in Peru, and deforestation through slash-and-burn practices to expand plantations and livestock farming, primarily in Brazil.

"It will be the biggest environmental challenge for President Lula, who will begin his term in January," Ricardo Galvão, a physics professor at the University of São Paulo and former director of the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), who was dismissed in 2019 for releasing data on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, told RFI.

“There are about 29 criminal groups operating in the Amazon, and not just in Brazil. The first thing Lula must establish is a very strong collaboration with the presidents of Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru to gain control over all the activities of these criminal groups. The other very important part is achieving sustainable development in the Amazon, because more than 30 million people live there,” estimates Galvão.