OTCA warns that the Amazon is 17% deforested

Published at: 07/08/2025 03:25 PM

During the V Seminar on the Venezuelan Amazon Basin, which takes place at the “Antonio José de Sucre” Yellow House, in Caracas, the Secretary General of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (OTCA), Martin von Hildebrand, warned that this plant lung is 17% deforested and that work must be done against the clock to prevent it from reaching 25%, a point of no return at which the jungle would “collapse”. “We start from the urgency that we must stop reforestation; complex. There is a legal part, yes, there is legal deforestation, such as for crops, roads, but most of it is illegal, mafias have more money and are more organized than governments... and, unfortunately, in many places it has become a culture, it is the modus vivendi, people have become used to being given orders by the mafias”, warned the expert, assuring that the inhabitants of the Amazon must receive not only economic support, but also empowerment, “participation in decision-making, the responsibility to own their land, to feel citizens who belong to the region”. Along these lines, in developing his paper Evolution from the Amazon to the Amazon Basin within the framework of the 48-year Amazon Cooperation Treaty (TCA), he pointed out that it is important to promote “sabanization”, which consists of managing to regulate the temperature of the Amazon rainforest in the midst of climate change. “We cannot do development at the expense of the environment, nor conservation at the expense of the inhabitants, we have to find the joint way that makes balance prevail and for this, we need funding,” he added, referring to the fact that caring for the Amazon rainforest is a global responsibility. The V Seminar on the Venezuelan Amazon Basin, which seeks to promote the sustainable development and environmental conservation of this territory, was installed in the morning hours and will end in the late afternoon with the presentation of conclusions. For von Hildebrand, Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru and Suriname -as members of the OTCA- have the responsibility to continue to establish cooperation and solidarity agreements to make comprehensive progress in the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of the natural resources of the Amazon Basin. “So, what is being sought is precisely to reach a strong agreement among all, between the eight countries. This is the moment, we are at an important political moment, this is the political year of the Amazon,” he said, announcing that the OTCA will meet on August 22. The OTCA -created in 1995- works within the framework of the implementation of the TCA, aimed at promoting the harmonious development of the Amazonian territories, based on the joint actions of the eight nations involved, in order to obtain equitable and mutually beneficial results in the field of sustainable and sustainable development.

MPPPRE