Amazon countries discuss strategy for preservation of rainforest

Presidents and representatives from South America'sAmazon region were arriving on Friday for a summit in Colombia, wherethey were due to sign a pact on measures for the preservation andsustainable development of the world's largest rainforest. The measures "will have to be taken not only by the Amazon countries,but also by the nations in the region and the international communityin general," according to the Colombian Foreign Ministry.The summit in Leticia, the capital of Colombia's Amazon region, wasdue to bring together Colombian President Ivan Duque, Peru's MartinVizcarra, Ecuador's Lenin Moreno, Bolivia's Evo Morales, Suriname'sVice President Michael Adhin and Brazilian Foreign Minister ErnestoAraujo.The summit was taking place as Brazil came under growinginternational criticism over tens of thousands of wildfires that haveravaged its 60-per-cent share of the Amazon this year.The fires followed moves by President Jair Bolsonaro to open more ofthe rainforest to mining and agriculture, with satellite dataindicating that the pace of deforestation is increasing rapidly inone of the most biodiverse and carbon-rich areas in the world.Bolsonaro was not attending the summit due to upcoming surgery, butwas due to follow it over videoconference. Duque said last week that the current cooperation to preserve theAmazon has "fallen short" of what is needed and that there has notbeen "sufficient leadership ... to understand how we must exercise aharmonious, reliable and indicator-based protection of our Amazon.""We need to protect these resources and join forces around thisgoal," Duque tweeted on Friday.The G7 group of seven major democratic economies recently pledged 20million dollars in emergency aid to Brazil.In addition to Brazil, fires have also affected other parts of theAmazon and other forest ecosystems in the region, including Bolivia,Paraguay and Peru.