From Our Blog: Recently with the ICCF Group

Parliamentarians from Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru held an Assembly meeting of the Amazon Parliament (PARLAMAZ) on Tuesday, April 25, made possible with ICCF support.

Parliamentarians from Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru held an Assembly meeting of the Amazon Parliament (PARLAMAZ) on Tuesday, April 25, made possible with ICCF support. The meeting, held in Belém do Pará, was welcomed by the Governor of the State of Pará, Helder Barbalho, and by Ambassador Antônio Ricarte, representative of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Participants called attention to the upcoming Summit of Amazon Heads of State in August, also in Belém. It will bring together the eight heads of state from countries that make up the Cooperation Treaty Organization Amazônica (OTCA).

During the April 25th PARLAMAZ Assembly, the representatives of the five Amazonian parliaments present at the meeting agreed to deliver a statement to the heads of state who will be gathered at the summit in August. The document expresses concern over the continued loss of biodiversity in the Amazon and highlights the importance of exchanging legislative proposals among Amazonian countries to improve the coherence of regional public policies to advance conservation and sustainable production.

Rodrigo Agostinho, a founder of the Brazilian Caucus and current President of IBAMA, recalled that the standing forest does not receive the same attention as the planted areas and that it is necessary to create economic alternatives to guarantee the maintenance of the Amazonian biodiversity.

"We have the challenge of creating economic alternatives and having a large menu of offers that can guarantee the maintenance of our biodiversity. This includes tourism, it includes the bioeconomy, the energy transition, the carbon market, non-forest concessions, the management of products including non-timber forest products."

On April 21 Deputados Socorro Neri from the state of Acre in Amazonia, together with Zé Silva Soares of Minas Gerais, traveled to Paris to participate in the ICCF-sponsored Interparliamentary Dialogue at the Assemblée Nationale, which focused on The Role of Legislatures in a New Global Financing Pact.