Amazon Cities Forum aspires to strengthen climate resilience and sustainability via intermunicipal solidarity
UNDRR participated in the preparatory events for the Amazon Summit in Belém do Pará (Brazil), being the Amazon Cities Forum, held on 3 and 4 August 2023, and the Amazon Dialogues, held from 4 to 6 August, in which representatives of the MCR2030 initiative promoted the local level implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
The Amazon region is highly urbanised. In Brazil, 75% of the Amazonian population and 40% of the indigenous population live in cities. With 80% of disasters occurring in small and intermediate cities in Latin America (UNDRR, RAR, 2021), Amazonian municipalities are at the forefront of assisting the most impacted people and managing increasing risks of infectious diseases and food insecurity due to climate change.
The Amazon Cities Forum sought to include the specificities and challenges of the Amazon territories in the structuring of a common agenda for sustainability and climate resilience, highlighting the fundamental role of local governments for the conservation and sustainable development of the Amazon. The Amazon Cities Forum ended with the signing of the Belém Charter, in Portuguese and Spanish, which creates a permanent forum between the region's mayors, within the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation (ACTO), and includes the objective of "making resilient and sustainable cities".
In parallel, the Amazon Dialogues aimed to ensure a participatory approach to Pan-Amazonian cooperation via the inclusion of the demands, knowledge and capacities of the inhabitants of the Amazon region, especially indigenous peoples. On this occasion, MCR2030 teamed up with the Municipality of Barcarena, MCR2030's Resilience Hub, and the NGO RARE to discuss with civil society the incorporation of disaster risk reduction objectives into food security, environmental management, and public health agendas.
"Against intensified flooding and greater likelihood of droughts, the sensitivity of Amazonian municipalities to the importance of risk reduction has increased. Municipal and community leadership is emerging to promote disaster resilience as a guarantee for the sustainable development of Amazonian territories."
Clément Da Cruz, MCR2030 Junior Programme Officer, UNDRR Americas and the Caribbean
