Indigenous leaders push new target to protect Amazon from deforestation

MARSEILLE, France, Sept.5 (Reuters) – Indigenous groups on Sunday urged world leaders to support a new goal to protect 80% of the Amazon basin by 2025, saying bold action was needed to stop pushing deforestation the largest rainforest on Earth beyond a point of no return.

Amazon delegates kicked off their campaign at a nine-day conference in Marseille, where several thousand officials, scientists and activists are setting the stage for United Nations discussions on biodiversity in the Chinese city of Kunming next year. Read more

“We invite the global community to join with us in reversing the destruction of our home and in doing so protect the future of the planet,” said José Gregorio Diaz Mirabal, senior coordinator of COICA, which represents indigenous groups in nine countries of the Amazon basin. Reuters.

Just under 50% of the Amazon basin is currently in some form of official protection or indigenous stewardship, according to a study released last year.

But the pressure from ranching, mining and oil exploration is increasing. In Brazil, home to 60% of the biome, deforestation has increased since right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019, peaking in 12 years last year and sparking international outcry.

The Amazon basin as a whole has lost 18% of its original forest cover while an additional 17% has degraded, according to a landmark study released in July by the Science Panel for the Amazon, based on research from 200 scientists.

If deforestation reaches 20 to 25 percent, it could tip the Amazon into a death spiral in which it dries up and becomes savannah, according to Brazilian Earth System scientist Carlos Nobre.

The Marseille Gathering is the last “World Conservation Congress”, an event organized every four years by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, a forum bringing together governments, civil society and researchers.

COICA wants congress to approve its “Amazonia80x2025” statement to give the proposal a greater chance of gaining traction in Kunming, where governments are to discuss goals for protecting biodiversity over the next decade.

Report by Matthew Green in Marseille; Additional reporting by Jake Spring in Brasilisa; Editing by Mike Harrison

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