AMAZON COOPERATION TREATY ORGANIZATION (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 - Env & Eco)

Context: Leaders from the eight countries across the Amazon, including Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela, failed to agree on the goal to protect the rainforest at the ongoing Amazon Summit organised by the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO).

• The Belem Declaration released during the Amazon Summit recognises Indigenous knowledge as a condition for biodiversity conservation and calls for ensuring full and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples in decision-making and public policy formulation processes.

Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO)

• It is an international organization aimed at the promotion of sustainable development of the Amazon Basin. 
• Its member states are: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.
• The Amazon Cooperation Treaty (ACT) was signed on 3 July 1978 and amended in 1998. 
• ACTO was created in 1995 to strengthen the implementation of the Treaty. 
• The Permanent Secretariat was later established in Brasilia in 2002.
• In January 2023, Brazil announced it was hosting the 2023 Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization Summit in August in the same year.