The Amazon Summit convened by President Lula da Silva begins today in Belem, Brazil.

The meeting aims to coordinate policies to protect the rainforest among the countries with Amazonian territory.

Participants include leaders or representatives from Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia, Suriname and Guyana.

There will also be envoys from rainforest nations from other continents, such as Congo and Indonesia.

Amazonian states will renew their demand for compensation to rich nations for industrializing more than a century ago at the cost of global pollution.

The meeting in Belem aims to agree on a common position to take to the COP 26 Climate Summit, to be held in November in the United Arab Emirates.

In the framework of the meeting, Brazil and Colombia will seek to resolve differences over the possibility of exploiting hydrocarbons in the area.

On the one hand, Bogotá wants to prohibit any activity in the Amazon.

But state-owned Petrobras wants to explore the subsoil of the Equatorial Basin, 500 kilometres from the mouth of the Amazon River.