"The Amazon can only be protected from a global and holistic perspective."

Within the framework of the international forum "The New Dynamics of South-South Relations and the Challenges of Latin American Integration", held from April 22 to 25 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Monica Bruckmann, PhD in Political Science from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and member of the CLACSO Working Group “Geopolitics, regional integration and world system”, spoke with CLACSO.tv.

Bruckmann referred to Brazil's commitment to developing a serious environmental agenda, more specifically in relation to the Amazon region, where "since the 90s we have been seeing enormous losses in terms of Amazonian forest area. In every five years we have lost approximately 4 million hectares from the late 90s to the present," a situation that worsened during the government of Jair Bolsonaro, "because this loss is related to economic activity, mainly agribusiness and livestock farming."

Furthermore, he pointed out that “to consider the protection of the Amazon, as the continental ecological system that it is, a level of coordination among the Amazonian countries is necessary. For example, contaminating the tributaries of the Amazon River in Peru with cyanide and other acids through gold mining means contaminating the entire region, the entire Amazon basin. Therefore, I believe that this is a problem that can only be addressed from a global and holistic perspective.”

Interviewed by Gustavo Lema.