Amazon nations agree on alliance to fight deforestation at summit: Brazil FM

Eight South American countries agreed Tuesday to launch an alliance to fight deforestation in the Amazon, vowing at a summit in Brazil to stop the world's biggest rainforest from reaching "a point of no return.

The closely watched summit of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) adopted what host country Brazil called a "new and ambitious shared agenda" to save the rainforest, a crucial buffer against climate change that experts warn is being pushed to the brink of collapse.

The group's members -- Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela -- signed a joint declaration in Belem, at the mouth of the Amazon River, laying out a nearly 10,000-word roadmap to promote sustainable development, end deforestation and fight the organized crime that fuels it.