Colombia seeks 'environmental corridor' across Andes, Amazon
Colombia on Monday proposed creating an "environmental corridor" across northern South America to protect a vast, biologically rich swath of mountains and jungle from the impact of climate change.
President Juan Manuel Santos said he hoped to interest Brazil and Venezuela in the idea, so they could offer a joint proposal at a climate summit in Paris at the end of the year.
"It would be the biggest in the world, encompassing 135 million hectares (333.5 million acres), which we would call the Triple A corridor, because it would go from the Andes to the Amazon to the Atlantic," he said on a government television program Agenda Colombia.
"We are going to propose this environmental corridor to preserve it and as a contribution to humanity in the debate on how to arrest climate change," he said.
He said Colombia's Environment Minister Gabriel Vallejo and Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin would begin talks on the idea this week with Brazil and Venezuela.
He provided few details on what establishing such a corridor would involve.
But as Santos envisions it, 62 percent of it would run through Brazilian territory, 34 percent through Colombia and four percent through Venezuela.
He said putting a brake on climate change was in Colombia's interest because of the dangers it poses for the country's rich biodiversity.
The countries of the world are to meet in Paris between November and December to try to reach a global agreement on climate change.
© 2015 AFP
