Indigenous leaders push new target to curb Amazon deforestation

Just under 50 percent of Amazon basin is under some form of protection, but advocates say pressure is mounting.

Indigenous groups are urging world leaders to back a new target to protect 80 percent of the Amazon basin by 2025, saying bold action is needed to stop deforestation pushing the Earth’s largest rainforest beyond a point of no return. Amazonian delegates launched their campaign on Sunday at a nine-day conference in Marseille, France, where several thousand officials, scientists and campaigners are laying the groundwork for United Nations talks on biodiversity in the Chinese city of Kunming next year. “We invite the global community to join us to reverse the destruction of our home and by doing so safeguard the future of the planet,” Jose Gregorio Diaz Mirabal, lead coordinator for COICA, which represents Indigenous groups in nine Amazon-basin nations, told the Reuters news agency.