Behind the Amazon land-use data: ACTO, the eight-country body with its secretariat in Brasilia

Background

The MapBiomas mapping covers only the Brazilian share of the Amazon, but the basin is shared, and the body that holds its countries together is the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization. ACTO is an intergovernmental organisation of the eight Amazonian countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. It rests on the Amazon Cooperation Treaty, signed in 1978 and described by the organisation as the first international agreement aimed at the joint protection and development of the Amazon. The treaty was institutionally strengthened in 1998 with the creation of ACTO itself. Since 2003 its Permanent Secretariat has been based in Brasilia, coordinating regional action. ACTO launched the Amazon Regional Observatory in 2021, and its recent political mandates were set out in the Belem Declaration of 2023 and the Bogota Declaration of 2025. Its stated mission is cooperation, integration and sustainable development across the eight countries, balancing conservation, development and social inclusion.