Colombia hosts Presidents’ Summit of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization for the future of the Amazon. Credit: Gicaman / CC BY 4.0
Today, Colombia hosts the 5th Presidents’ Summit of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), bringing together leaders from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. The gathering, held in Bogota, is billed as a decisive moment for the rainforest’s future, as Colombia seek to project unified voice ahead of this year’s COP30 climate summit in Belem, Brazil.
The Amazon countries: a political block in the making
The Bogota summit is more than a high-level diplomatic meeting. It represents the culmination of months of regional preparation through the so-called Amazon Dialogues — a series of national and regional forums, held both virtually and in person, where civil society, and community leaders met to assess past commitments and propose new strategies.
By convening presidents and ministers at the same table, the summit aims to strengthen the Amazonian bloc as a coherent political force in global climate negotiations. Leaders are expected to adopt a joint declaration — nicknamed the ‘Declaration of Bogota’, designed to consolidate regional cooperation, follow up on the Belem Declaration of 2023, and present the Amazon not as a local concern but as a strategic centerpiece in the fight against climate change.
Goals and commitments of Colombia’s Amazon Presidents’ Summit
At its core, the summit has three main objectives. First, to consolidate commitments for the protection of the Amazon biome, which scientists warn is dangerously close to a tipping point. Second, to reinforce mechanisms of cooperation and governance across eight member states. And third, to position the region with a strong, collective stance heading into COP30, where international financing and fossil fuel commitments will dominate the agenda.
According to Colombia’s Foreign Ministry, the meeting will also serve as a platform to make visible the voices of indigenous peoples, civil society, and academia who have long demanded stronger roles in decision-making. Organizers stress that the summit is not just about lofty declarations but about producing a shared road map for defending the Amazon against mounting environmental, social, and economic challenges.
The role of civil society in the summit
The preparatory Amazon dialogues revealed the scale of grassroots demands. Civil society organizations and indigenous federations outlined five core priorities to be addressed in Bogota:
Connectivity that sustains life: recognition of the Amazon as an interconnected ecosystem where Indigenous peoples and rural communities play an irreplaceable role.
Deforestation and conservation: advancing toward zero deforestation through a just and equitable transition, rather than top-down restrictions.
A forest free of environmental crime: addressing the growing presence of illegal mining, logging, and drug trafficking that undermine both governance and ecosystems.
Living economies: proposals for bioeconomic models that link conservation with sustainable livelihoods, rather than perpetuating extractive dependency.
Financing mechanisms: ensuring climate finance is distributed fairly, aligned with principles of justice and equity, and accessible to local communities.
These proposals will feed into the Bogota Declaration, with activists hoping that presidents go beyond rhetoric and anchor their promises in measurable timelines.
World’s largest forest at the brink?
The urgency is underlined by recent science. The WWF Living Planet Report 2024 warns that 17% of the Amazon has already been lost. Should deforestation climb to between 20% and 25%, the region could cross an irreversible threshold, shifting from lush rainforest to savanna. This would destabilize global weather patterns, collapse unique ecosystems, and threaten the survival of Indigenous nations and local communities who depend on the forest for their livelihoods.
For many experts, the Amazon’s crisis is no longer a distant warning, it is a present danger. Coordinated action is seen as the only way to halt the trend. That requires commitments not only at the national and regional levels but also stronger global backing. Without meaningful progress, scientists warn the Amazon could cease functioning as a carbon sink and instead become a net emitter of greenhouse gases.
Indigenous leadership in the process has become essential. Indigenous delegations arriving in Bogota have insisted that their role cannot be symbolic. They are pressing governments to recognize them as decision-makers within ACTO, not just stakeholders. Their agenda includes a ban on new oil and mining concessions, the creation of an Amazon-wide observatory to monitor threats against environmental defenders, and the establishment of a regional working group for a just transition to clean energy.
“Without our territories and our knowledge, the is no future for the Amazon”, declared one Indigenous leader ahead of the summit. Their message is blunt: another round of vague promises without enforcement mechanisms will deepen mistrust and erode the credibility of the Amazonian bloc.
Security and governance challenges
Beyond climate, the summit also grapples with growing insecurity. Criminal networks, from illegal gold mining to narco-trafficking, are expanding across remote stretches of the Amazon, undermining state presence and fueling violence against activists. Experts argue that strengthening judicial cooperation, border security, and community-based development is essential to regaining control of these territories. Still, leaders must strike a balance between law-enforcement strategies and investments in sustainable livelihoods if they are to win local support.
The ultimate test of Bogota will be whether its outcomes shift global negotiations. With COP30 only months away, governments hope to arrive in Belem with a stronger united voice that secures increased financing for forest protection and paves the way for new climate commitments.
Observers expect the Bogota Declaration to emphasize zero deforestation targets, reinforce the protection of Indigenous rights, and outline concrete measures for scaling up regional cooperation. More than a political gesture, the declaration is meant to be a road map for action, a guide to prevent the Amazon from crossing its ecological tipping point.
What’s at stake?
The stakes extend far beyond the Amazon Basin. Losing the rainforest would accelerate climate chaos globally, from droughts in South America to rainfall disruptions as far away as Africa and Asia. For the eight Amazonian nations, the summit is also a test of whether they can rise above political divisions and present themselves as a strategic environmental bloc capable of shaping the global climate agenda.
For Indigenous people, activists, and scientists, the hope is that Bogota will mark a turning point, not another meeting of promises, but the start of a coordinated, measurable effort to safeguard the planet’s largest tropical forest.
As the presidents gather in Bogota, one question looms: Will this summit generate the political will and resources needed to keep the Amazon alive or will it be remembered as another missed opportunity at the edge of ecological collapse?