In ceremony, the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) and the Intergovernmental Coordinating Committee of the Plata Basin Countries (CIC-Plata) signed today a Framework Cooperation Agreement that will enable the exchange of experiences and knowledge on the development and implementation of programs of strategic actions for the management of the water resources of these two basins of global importance: the Plata Basin and the Amazon Basin.
ACTO’s Secretary-General, Alexandra Moreira, said that with the signing of this agreement we are uniting most of the countries of South America to work for one of the fundamental resources for life, that is the water resource which houses these two basins.
”An integrated management of water resources with a vision that helps us with water security is an effective measure to sustain a balance in our basins, and both organizations are seeking to raise the importance of the sector in our countries”, said Moreira during her speech.
For his part, the Secretary-General of the CIC-Plata, Juan Carlos Alurralde, said that this is a historic moment. “The Plata and Amazon basins come together to demonstrate our vocation for integration. We have responsibility for these important basins, not only for our countries, but for the whole world”, he argued.
In addition, the Director of the South America Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, Minister João Marcelo Galvão de Queiroz, in his capacity as President of the Coordination Commission of the Amazon Cooperation Council (CCOOR), he affirmed that the action plan of this Framework Agreement will allow the adoption of concrete actions in favor of the sustainable deve
lopment of the two basins.
The CIC-Plata has the responsibility of promoting, coordinating and monitoring the progress of multinational actions aimed at the integral development of the Plata Basin, and was consolidated as the permanent body of the Basin through the Treaty of the Plata Basin. ACTO, through its Permanent Secretariat, coordinates procedures under the Amazon Cooperation Treaty (ACT).
The territory of the Plata Basin covers 3 million and 100 thousand km2 in the territory of five countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. The Amazon Basin extends for about 7 million km2 and through the eight countries that are part of ACTO: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. The Plata Basin and the Amazon Basin are the largest watersheds in the world and are interdependent in hydroclimatic terms.
Cooperation in areas of mutual interest will be carried out through seminars, events and working meetings, and an action plan for the implementation of the Agreement will be developed, which will be valid for five years.
