Belem Summit News Today

Faced with deforestation of the world's largest rainforest, the 8 nations of the Amazon Basin have agreed to work towards conservation at the Belem Summit.

Eight South American countries, along with nations from the Caribbean, Africa and Asia, have called on industrialized nations to do more to protect the world's tropical forests. But some leaders gathered for a summit in Brazil have faced criticism for not pledging to halt deforestation in the Amazon.

Representatives of rainforest nations in Africa and Southeast Asia joined a summit of Amazon countries in Brazil on Wednesday (Aug. 09) to begin charting a common course for preservation of the ecologically diverse regions that are crucial in countering climate change.

Donors from industrialised nations were under pressure on Wednesday at a top level conference on the Amazon to do more to help preserve the world's largest rainforest.