Originally published 2021-01-26.
The Leticia Pact is a regional agreement on the Amazon rainforest, signed on 6 September 2019 in the Colombian river town of Leticia by seven of the countries that share the forest: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru and Suriname. It came only weeks after the fires of August 2019 put the Amazon on front pages around the world.
The pact promised closer cooperation on monitoring, emergency response and the role of Indigenous peoples. It did not, however, contain a binding promise to end deforestation, firm targets or new money. Understanding both sides of that story explains why the summit was welcomed and doubted at the same time.
What the Leticia Pact actually says
The summit was hosted by Colombia's president at the time, Iván Duque. Peru's Martín Vizcarra, Ecuador's Lenín Moreno and Bolivia's Evo Morales attended in person. Suriname sent its vice-president, Michael Adhin; Guyana sent its natural resources minister, Raphael Trotman; and Brazil was represented by its foreign minister, Ernesto Araújo. Venezuela, which also holds part of the Amazon basin, was not invited.
Al Jazeera's report on the day listed the headline commitments. The governments agreed to:
- strengthen coordinated action between neighbouring states;
- set up a regional cooperation mechanism, including a network for responding to disasters such as large fires;
- increase efforts to monitor forest cover, so that losses are spotted and shared faster;
- strengthen the capacity and participation of Indigenous and tribal peoples in protecting the forest.
These are real steps, especially for countries that had rarely shared data or coordinated firefighting. Still, the wording is about intention and process. Claims that the signatories "pledged to stop deforestation" go further than the text. The pact is better described as a framework for working together than as a ban on clearing forest.
Duque framed the aim in broad terms. As reported by the Bangkok Post, he said the agreement should "foster a space for regional dialogue to advance the protection and sustainable use of this region, which is essential for the survival of the planet."
Why the summit happened in 2019
The timing was not an accident. August 2019 brought a record number of fire alerts in the Brazilian Amazon, and Brazil as a whole recorded more than 72,000 fires that year, over half of them in the Amazon region. Large fires also burned in Bolivia. Images of smoke darkening the sky over São Paulo spread around the world and triggered a diplomatic row between Brazil and several European governments.
Most Amazon fires are not natural. The rainforest is humid and does not usually burn on its own. Fire is used to clear land after trees have been cut, and to renew pasture. That means fire numbers are closely linked to deforestation, which in Brazil was already rising sharply in 2019.
The Leticia meeting was a way for the region's governments to show that they could respond together, and that the Amazon's future would be decided by the countries that hold it.
Brazil, Bolsonaro and the sovereignty argument
Brazil holds roughly 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest, so no regional plan can work without it. President Jair Bolsonaro did not travel to Leticia, citing his health, and joined by video link instead.
His message focused on national control. He argued that each country should be free to set its own Amazon policy and warned against outside interference, a theme he had repeated during the dispute with European leaders over the fires. For him, the pact's value was that it affirmed sovereignty rather than created shared obligations.
Environmental groups saw it differently. They linked the rise in clearing to his government's weakening of environmental enforcement and to his stated wish to open more of the forest to farming and mining. The numbers that followed support their concern: deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rose by more than 50 percent in early 2020 compared with early 2019, and reached a 15-year high in 2021.
Indigenous leaders and rights groups were among his strongest critics. Some reportedly asked the International Criminal Court to examine his government's conduct towards Indigenous peoples. Such requests made headlines, but they are calls for an investigation, not court findings.
What the Amazon does, and a common myth
The Amazon basin covers around 7 million square kilometres, of which about 6 million are rainforest, spread across nine countries and territories: Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. More than 30 million people live in the region, including around 350 ethnic groups and dozens of Indigenous peoples who live in voluntary isolation.
Its global role is often summed up as "the lungs of the planet". That phrase is misleading. The forest's plants produce huge amounts of oxygen, but the forest's own animals, microbes and decaying matter use almost all of it again. Its net contribution to the oxygen we breathe is close to zero, and the oxygen in the air would not run out if the Amazon disappeared.
The real stakes are carbon, water and life. Amazon forests store roughly a tenth of the carbon held in the world's land ecosystems. When they are cleared or burned, that carbon goes into the atmosphere. The forest also recycles rainfall that feeds farms and cities across South America, and it holds an enormous share of the world's land species.
Scientists warn of a possible tipping point. About 20 percent of the original forest had been cleared by 2022, with more degraded. Research suggests that losing roughly 20 to 25 percent could push large parts of the east, south and centre towards a drier, savanna-like state. A 2021 synthesis even found that the basin as a whole was now emitting more greenhouse gases than it absorbed.
The people who live in the forest
Deforestation is not only an ecological problem. Indigenous communities depend on the forest for food, medicine and culture, and land conflicts, illegal mining and logging often reach them first. Isolated groups are also highly vulnerable to outside diseases against which they have little immunity, which is why contact by loggers or miners can be so dangerous.
Studies of satellite data repeatedly show that recognised Indigenous territories tend to lose less forest than surrounding land. That is one reason the pact's promise to strengthen Indigenous participation mattered. Yet Indigenous leaders at the summit were sceptical. Nelly Kuiru of Colombia's National Indigenous Organization called the agreement very vague and doubted it would be fulfilled, pointing out that most of Colombia's Indigenous villages lie in the Amazon.
Analysts made a similar point. Sergio Guzmán of Colombia Risk Analysis described the summit to Al Jazeera mainly as a photo opportunity, with little sign of rapid change.
Did the pact make a difference?
The fairest answer is that the Leticia Pact mattered less than the policies of the individual governments, above all Brazil's. Deforestation kept rising during the rest of Bolsonaro's term. After Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva returned to the presidency in 2023 with a pledge to restore enforcement, clearing in the Brazilian Amazon fell by about half in the first ten months of that year compared with the same period in 2022.
That contrast is a useful lesson. Regional agreements can build trust, share satellite data and speed up help during fires. But the decisive tools are national: inspections, fines, land titles for Indigenous peoples, rules on credit and on the beef and soy supply chains that drive clearing.
How to follow Amazon news with a clear eye
- Look for numbers, not signatures. Annual deforestation figures, such as those from Brazil's satellite monitoring, tell you more than the text of a declaration.
- Separate fires from clearing. Fire counts change with weather; deforestation data show whether forest is actually being lost.
- Ask who enforces it. A pact without funding or deadlines depends on the political will of each government.
- Listen to Indigenous organisations. They are often the first to report invasions and the most direct judges of whether promises reach the ground.
- Check consumer links. Cattle ranching is the main driver of Amazon clearing, so supply-chain rules in importing countries also matter.
The Leticia Pact was a signal that the Amazon countries could sit at one table during a crisis. Whether the forest benefits depends on what happens long after the cameras leave.
Sources: Al Jazeera: Amazon countries sign pact to better protect the rainforest (6 September 2019); Bangkok Post: Amazon countries meet to bolster rainforest protection; TheJournal.ie: Seven South American nations sign Amazon protection pact; Wikipedia: Amazon rainforest; original story via Truth Theory.
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