A summit on measures to protect the Amazon basin has failed to put an end to deforestation, with the eight nations involved unable to reach full agreement.

Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela were all in attendance of a summit that has been seen as critical to the environment. In the last fifty years, Brazil’s Amazon has lost about 300,000 square miles of forest cover and there had been hopes that any further destruction could be terminated with summit host, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, calling for a common goal of ending deforestation by 2030.

There was some progress as the nations agreed to a list of unified environmental policies and measures and the meeting in Brazil led to an alliance to combat deforestation being formed, but without any overall goals. Leaving the eight countries to pursue their own targets.

In a speech during the first part of meeting, ACTO Secretary-General Maria Alexandra Moreira López said that the declaration that will be signed by the organisation's countries “is a dynamic and daring commitment which presents a comprehensive vision that has sought to understand the Amazon – in its broadest dimension – as a biome harbouring complex interconnections that requires management measures at systemic, cross-border, and multisectoral levels”.

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