South America: Public debt forgiveness for Amazon conservation

The Amazon is the largest tropical forest in the world, and its care and permanence are considered key to avoiding the most catastrophic effects of climate change.

On Monday, September 5, Indigenous groups from the Amazon basin called on financial institutions to forgive the sovereign debt of South American nations that manage the Amazon rainforest in exchange for commitments to protect the environment.

The call comes from a report led by “Coica,” an organization of indigenous groups living in the Amazon in nine countries.

The compromise “is to cancel the existing debt in exchange for commitments to end industrial mining and promote the protection of priority areas, indigenous territories, and protected areas,” the report says.

By linking the tax revenues, governments must generate to repay their debts to the impact on the Amazon rainforest, “Coica” is trying to push for a renegotiation of the national debt with a focus on rainforest conservation.

“Coica” has set a goal of preserving eighty percent of the Amazon by 2025, which is still possible despite heavy deforestation in recent years. Although sparsely populated, the Amazon has considerable economic value, especially from oil production in Ecuador and Colombia and informal gold mining near Brazilian, Peruvian, and Bolivian rivers.

“These acquired (state) debts are to be paid with resources located in indigenous territories, such as oil, mining, and others,” explained the deputy coordinator of “Coica,” Tuntiak Katan, who is of Ecuadorian origin.

Among the Amazon countries, Brazil, Ecuador, and Colombia have high public debt. The proposal aims to curb a “vicious cycle” in which countries in the Amazon region “need more resources to cover their debts, a need that forces them to boost extractive production chains in their countries, which puts greater pressure on natural resources, which in turn creates greater climate risk,” the report concludes.

With information from Latina Press