Yahoo TV

STORY: Leaders of Amazon nations projected an image of unity as they met to end its deforestation but they had failed to agree on a deadline to do just that, as their summit ended Tuesday.

The Belem summit gathered officials from Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and more.

The countries that made up the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization were expected to ink a pact to stop deforestation by 2030 – a goal Brazil itself had adopted.

Instead, members were left to pursue their own individual deforestation goals.

A Brazilian government source told Reuters Bolivia was a hold-out in the issue.

Tensions also emerged on the issue of oil drilling.

Colombia’s president was against new oil developments in the Amazon.

But Brazil’s energy minister said they wanted to explore a huge, new offshore oil find near the mouth of the Amazon River, what he said was “the last frontier” of oil and gas before making a “gradual energy transition”.

Speaking to the media, Brazil’s foreign minister Mauro Veira played down the division between Colombia and other members.

“We do not have a different position. The position is convergent and each country will have to follow a pace that is within its reach. There are many countries in the world that still have an energy system totally dependent on coal and fossil fuels, obviously. They will be further away, but that doesn't mean they are against it, I assume.”

The meeting in the city of Belem brought together the members for the first time in 14 years…

… and out in the streets, it also gathered indigenous peoples of the Amazon who marched against mining, oil drilling, and other so-called “extractivist projects”

“We are here marching and saying that we do not accept mining in our territory, we do not want oil exploitation in the Amazon, that this has already impacted the lives of our families in our territories.”

The Belem summit also did not fix a deadline on ending another threat to the forest -- illegal gold mining.

However, leaders agreed to cooperate on the issue and work together to police cross-border environmental crimes.

The final joint statement, called the Belem Declaration, strongly asserted indigenous rights and protections, and agreements on negotiating positions at climate summits.

But without a strong statement vowing zero deforestation, critics say policymakers are moving too slowly to head off catastrophic global warming as temperatures soar to record levels globally.