By Ulric Trotz

Ulric (Neville) Trotz was formerly the Deputy Director & Science Adviser, Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, Belmopan, Belize. He is the author of his recently published professional memoir, A Ray of Hope: Reflections on the Development of Science and Technology in Guyana and the Caribbean (University of Guyana Press, 2025), available for sale at the University of Guyana bookstore and Austin’s bookstore and also as an e-publication.

In August 2023, the eight countries that are home to the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation (ACTO) (Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela) and three other tropical forest rich countries (Indonesia, The Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo), met in Belem at the invitation of Brazil’s President Lula to consider actions that are required to arrest the present rate of destruction of this critical global ecosystem.

At the end of the meeting, the ACTO countries issued the Belem Declaration, which inter alia proposes an action programme to arrest the degradation of the Amazon forest ecosystems and to maintain access to the essential services they provide through the employment of sustainable development practices. The Declaration outlines measures for cooperation between ACTO countries on a wide range of issues related to vulnerable ecosysytems and biodiversity, water management, health, food and nutrition security, climate change including development of common negotiating positions at climate summits, and sustainable development. It emphasised the importance of Indigenous rights and protection and called for the establishment of a science body to meet annually and produce authoritative reports on science related to the Amazon rainforest, performing a role similar to that of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The Belem declaration is a call for action in several areas critical for tropical forest survival, and offers a