2023-08-09 21:23:00
Guyana, a territory in the land of Amazonia. However, the overseas department has not been present at the summit on the Amazon, which brings together the countries of South America with the aim of saving the largest tropical forest in the world, in Bélem in northern Brazil, since Tuesday. An event that the Brazilian president hopes will be “a turning point” in the fight against global warming.
Is France missing subscribers? Not really. President Emmanuel Macron had been invited by his Brazilian counterpart. But he did not go there and sent the French ambassador to Brazil, Brigitte Collet to represent him. All of the invited countries – Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Suriname, Guyana and Peru – are part of ACTO (the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization). France was invited as a guest or observer, because it has an Amazonian territory with Guyana.
“We will be spectators of the discussions”
A choice that tenses the elected representatives of Guyana, who would have appreciated that a spokesperson for the territory be associated with the summit. “Once again we have no voice in the matter, we will be spectators of the discussions”, regretted Thibault Lechat-Vega, the spokesperson for the Territorial Collectivity of Guyana (CTG) with Franceinfo. The third vice-president of the institution, in charge of European and institutional affairs, says he is “in total incomprehension”. “It is all the more problematic when President Emmanuel Macron uses the position of Guyana and the Amazon rainforest to have a voice on the South American international scene,” he adds.
A statement shared by Guyanese deputy Jean-Victor Castor, in charge of sustainable development and regional planning. He denounces a “double discourse” by Emmanuel Macron. The two elected officials underline in the columns of Release that the Amazonian forest in Guyana is indeed threatened by “gold panning, deforestation and mercury pollution”.
For his part, the president of the local authority, Gabriel Serville, indicated to the daily that he finds it harmful to “not have been informed by the ministry, nor associated with this summit”. In addition, the elected official assures that he would have been delighted to be able to go “to the heads of state, as a neighbor and representative of Guyana”.
“Stop deforestation”
But why did Emmanuel Macron choose not to reaffirm his climate policy on the Brazilian scene? The president is currently on vacation in Bregançon. The Elysée indicated to Release that “the embassy represents France and therefore all of the French territories, of which Guyana is a part”.
On X (ex-Twitter), the president commented on the event in a long tweet on Tuesday: “It is urgent to put an end to deforestation. “During my travels in recent months, I have been able to promote a model: reconciling nature conservation and economic development by remunerating the services provided by forest states and their populations to the rest of the world”, writes the head of State.
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Since returning to power last January, Brazilian President Lula has pledged to end deforestation by 2030, which rose sharply under his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro. Deforested land is often turned into pasture for livestock, but destruction is also caused by gold miners and timber traffickers. In 2025, Bélem will host the UN Climate Conference COP30.
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