Key Amazon stakeholders met in Brasilia to harmonise their strategy for project financing and regional cooperation.
The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) participated in the first Mesa de Cooperantes of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation (ACTO), a strategic dialogue space, at the start of a crucial year for the world’s largest tropical forest.
A succession of international events in 2025 will shape this globally significant ecosystem.
This is the only intergovernmental organisation of eight Amazonian countries—Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela—that signed the Amazon Cooperation Treaty (ACT) to balance ecosystem development and nature conservation.
The presidents of the eight countries issued the Belém Declaration in 2023, establishing the framework for Amazon action plans with 113 objectives to address international cooperation, biodiversity conservation, and local community support.
The first meeting of the ACTO’s Mesa de Cooperantes brought together representatives of cooperation agencies, development banks, and multilateral organisations to discuss how to pool resources and improve their joint efforts to prevent duplication and optimise resource use in bioeconomy and conservation.
Participants
The meeting was attended by IICA, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the CAF-Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, UNESCO, the FAO, the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the Development Bank (FONPLATA), the European Union, and Brazil’s National Bank for Economic and Social Development.
The eight Amazonian nations participated alongside Switzerland, Norway, the UK, and the Netherlands.
Cristina Costa, IICA’s technical coordinator in Brazil, presented the Institute’s Innovation and Bioeconomy Program’s Amazon focus areas: strengthening sustainable management practices, promoting economic diversification, recognising and valuing ancestral and traditional knowledge, and producing scientific knowledge and technological innovation.
IICA also promotes Amazon bio-input production and usage, economic incentives for natural resource conservation, regional collaboration and knowledge sharing, and environmental education and awareness.
Costa detailed IICA’s technical cooperation programs in the region in response to local community needs and respecting the Amazon ecosystem’s traits.
Brazil and Ecuador have programs on rural property regularisation, agricultural production chain innovation, and deforestation-free coffee and cocoa production.
Amazon stores 250 billion tonnes of CO2 and captures 100 million tonnes annually.
