A summit between South American leaders to devise a plan to save the Amazon, failed to come up with a "common stance" on deforestation, as five of the eight invited leaders failed to show up to the meeting, reports Al Jazeera.
Guyana's president Bharrat Jagdeo and France's Nicolas Sarkozy attended the meeting in Manaus, which was hosted by Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Colombian's Alvaro Uribe pulled out of the meeting over a political dispute. Leaders from Suriname and Bolivia, along with Ecuador's Rafael Correa, who has pushed his own rainforest conservation plan, also missed the summit.
Nonetheless the apparent alliance between France and Brazil is significant going into next month's climate negotiations in Copenhagen. France has a central role in the E.U., one the largest producers of carbon dioxide, while Brazil has recently committed to significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation.
The Manaus meeting focused on Brazil's recent success in reducing forest clearing in the Amazon though better policing, new incentives to keep trees standing, and new protected areas. Brazil's state-of-the-art satellite ...