It’s 42% of Colombia’s territory. It’s 7% of the total Amazon Rainforest. It’s the same size as Sweden, and it’s now free from future oil and mineral extraction.

The news that half a million square kilometers of territory in the Amazon biome of Colombia was now limited only to renewable and regenerative economic activities only came out of Brazil, where the 30th annual meeting of the parties to the UN convention on climate change is taking place.

Acting Environment Minister Irene Vélez Torres made the announcement, and invited all South American countries to make similar commitments, and coordinate to protect the Amazon’s integrity when massive swaths of it are threatened by extractive activities.

“This declaration is an ethical and scientific commitment. It seeks to prevent forest degr

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