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OAS-AMAZON ORGANIZATION AGREEMENT WILL SPUR
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF BIODIVERSITY

The Organization of American States (OAS) and the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) have signed an agreement to support technical cooperation among Amazon Treaty countries for enhanced sustainable development of the Amazon Basin’s biodiversity and resources.

OAS Acting Secretary General Luigi R. Einaudi and ACTO Secretary General Rosalía Arteaga Serrano, signed the accord at OAS headquarters today.

Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname are signatories to the 1978 Amazon Treaty that encompasses more than 3 million square miles and a population of over 250 million, under a joint commitment to cooperate in managing the world’s largest freshwater river basin network, which contains one of the planet’s most important biological diversity.

The Brazil-based Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization facilitates cooperation among the countries on a number of joint programs and projects designed to achieve the objectives of the Treaty. Under its strategic action plan, six priority areas are identified for urgent action: water (including the development of harmonized water quality standards); forests, soil and natural/protected areas; conserving biological diversity; supporting territorial planning, improving human settlements and protecting indigenous peoples; improving health and education; and cooperating jointly in such economic areas as transportation, electricity and communication.

Under the OAS-ACTO agreement, the two organizations will support initiatives in each strategic area of concern, with particular attention to the integrated management of freshwater resources; the promotion of environmental health; environmental protection that works in tandem with economic integration; and the conservation of biological diversity.

Lauding the proposed collaboration as an effective and practical program to promote shared interests, Ambassador Einaudi noted that “one of the great challenges of countries and their people is to balance the urgent demands for economic growth and development with sustainable management. This Cooperation Agreement between ATCO and the OAS shows our commitment to work with the countries and the Organization [ATCO] in the important work that lies ahead.”

He also praised the initiative of these eight countries by which they have joined forces to protect and advance their common interests. He noted the important involvement of the OAS Office of Sustainable Development in this program.

Meanwhile Dr. Arteaga, a former minister, vice-president and president of Ecuador, underscored the agreement’s emphasis on biodiversity management but stressed that it was also a “mechanism to promote sustainable development and fight poverty while seeking to lift the standard of living of the region’s populations.”

She expressed concern about the real threats to the Amazon region’s biodiversity unless it is protected as a matter of urgency. “Anything we do in the Amazon affects climate change, and influences tsunamis in Asia. It affects the entire world.”

“The relationship between man and his environment remains as crucial today as it was when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and we must therefore address a basic human concern—the environment. We must also know how to protect the environment and how to manage natural resources, and that calls for taking care of the human race itself,” she asserted.

Stressing the issue of water as key, she recalled that the Amazon region accounts for some 20 per cent of the earth’s water, water necessary to support the world’s largest biodiversity.

Reference: E-018/05