Colombia was announced as the first Amazon country to declare its entire Amazon biome as a large-scale oil- and mining-free zone.
The announcement was made by Colombia’s Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Irene Vélez Torres during a meeting of ministers of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, OTCA.
“Colombia has decided to take the first step. We have been the first country in the Amazon basin to declare all of Colombia’s share of the Amazon biome as a reserve area of renewable natural resources, protecting this biome from large mining and hydrocarbon activities,” said Vélez Torres.
“We do this not only as an act of environmental sovereignty, but as a fraternal call to the other countries that share the Amazon biome, because the Amazon knows no borders and its care demands that we walk together,” he added.
The Colombian government encouraged the Amazon-intended nations to build an Amazon Alliance for Life to advance a just and sustainable energy transition.
The invitation was made during the Meeting of Ministers of Environment of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (OTCA), which was held at COP30 for climate change.
Colombia yearns for the Amazon rainforest to be the heart of climate action, environmental justice and peace with nature, shielding it from conventional extractive activities.
More than 483,000 square kilometers are included in the ban on new mining and hydrocarbon activities, which are equivalent to 42 percent of the continental [land area of Colombia] and approximately 7 percent of the South American Amazon.