GNV News – August 27, 2025

On August 22, 2025, the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) adopted the Bogotá Declaration, aimed at protecting the Amazon’s tropical forests and addressing poverty and inequality. The declaration was adopted to foster cooperation among ACTO member countries (Note 1) ahead of the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, scheduled to be held in Brazil in November 2025.

The declaration sets out support for the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF). The TFFF is a multilateral investment fund with a mechanism that generates profit by conserving, rather than destroying, tropical forests, and it is scheduled to be officially launched at COP30. Currently, 17% of the Amazon’s tropical forests has been cleared, approaching the 25% threshold said to trigger forest collapse.

There are related issues surrounding the TFFF. On August 18, 2025, Brazilian authorities suspended the Amazon Soy Moratorium. This agreement prohibited sourcing soy from areas of the Amazon deforested since 2008 and is estimated to have prevented 17,000 square kilometers of forest destruction to date. However, some warn that the suspension could lead to extensive clearing of tropical forests and an expansion of soy plantations. Can the TFFF address such challenges as well?

Meanwhile, some have criticized the Bogotá Declaration for lacking any reference to fossil fuels. The Amazon has recently drawn attention as a site for oil and natural gas extraction, but most such sites are said to lie within Indigenous peoples’ territories and ecological protected areas. Colombia advocated moving away from an economy reliant on fossil fuel extraction, but Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru opposed, and the declaration made no mention of it.

Attention will remain on how significant a role the Bogotá Declaration can play at COP30.

Note 1: The eight countries are Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.

Learn more about the TFFF → “World: What is the new TFFF fund to protect forests?“

Learn more about deforestation in the Amazon → “Brazil, Amazon: 91% of deforestation is illegal“

Tropical rainforest in Colombia shrouded in fog (Photo: David Riaño Cortés / Pexels [Pexels License])