Indigenous Leaders Push New Target to Protect Amazon from Deforestation

MARSEILLE, FRANCE - Indigenous groups urged world leaders on Sunday to back a new target to protect 80% of the Amazon basin by 2025, saying bold action was needed to stop deforestation pushing the Earth's largest rainforest beyond a point of no return.

Amazonian delegates launched their campaign at a nine-day conference in Marseille, 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," José Gregorio Diaz Mirabal, lead coordinator for COICA, which represents Indigenous groups in nine Amazon-basin nations, told Reuters. Just under 50% of the Amazon basin is currently under some form of official protection or indigenous stewardship, according to research published last year.