Amazon countries sign forest pact, promising to coordinate disaster response

By Luis Jaime Acosta

LETICIA, Colombia - Seven Amazonian countries on Friday signed a pact to protect the world's largest tropical forest via disaster response coordination and satellite monitoring, amid recent fires that torched thousands of square miles of the jungle.

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The countries will create a natural disaster network so they can better cooperate in the face of events like large-scale fires, the pact said.

The group will also work on reforestation initiatives, increase efforts to monitor deforestation activity via satellite, develop education initiatives and increase the role of indigenous communities in sustainable development, it added.

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The group will "work together to strengthen the programs and financial mechanisms, reiterate the commitments made by countries in these scenarios, mobilize public and private resources, including the multilateral banks, as appropriate, for the implementation of this pact."

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