Colombia has announced that it is the first Amazonian country to declare its entire Amazon biome a zone free of oil and large-scale mining. The announcement was made by Colombia’s Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Irene Vélez Torres, during a meeting of ministers from the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO).
“Colombia has decided to take the first step. We have become the first country in the Amazon basin to declare the entire Colombian portion of the Amazon biome a renewable natural resource reserve, protecting this biome from large-scale mining and hydrocarbon activities,” declared Vélez Torres.
“We are doing this not only as an act of environmental sovereignty, but also as a fraternal call to the other countries that share the Amazon biome, because the Amazon knows no borders and its preservation requires that we walk together,” he added.
The Colombian government urged the nations with a presence in the Amazon to build an Amazonian Alliance for Life to advance a just and sustainable energy transition.
The invitation was extended during the Meeting of Environment Ministers of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), held at the COP30 climate change conference.
Colombia aspires to make the Amazon rainforest the heart of climate action, environmental justice, and peace with nature, protecting it from conventional extractive activities.
More than 483,000 square kilometers are included in the ban on new mining and hydrocarbon activities, equivalent to 42 percent of the continental territory and approximately 7 percent of the South American Amazon.
IMAGE CREDIT: Colombia hopes that the Amazon rainforest will be the heart of climate action, environmental justice, and peace with nature, protecting it from conventional extractive activities. Photo: EFE.
[ SOURCE: teleSUR ]
