Edith Paredes, Administrative Director of the ACTO; Hugo Chavarría, IICA Manager of Innovation and Bioeconomy; Verónica Gálmez, IDB Lead Specialist / Amazon Coordination Unit; and Carmen Rosa García, Executive President of the IIAP.
Belém do Pará, Brazil, 19 November 2025 (IICA). At COP30, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) announced a new technical cooperation effort aimed at supporting implementation of the Strategy for Sustainable Economies for the Amazon,approved recently by the member countries of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO).
The project will be implemented jointly with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), working closely with the ATCO and the Amazon countries.
The announcement was made during the “Sustainable Economies Morning – Socio-bioeconomy”event,organized by the ATCO at COP30,a space that brought together representatives of governments, multilateral organizations, the private sector, indigenous peoples, networks and civil society organizations in the Amazon, and marked a twofold milestone for the region.
Two milestones for the Amazon
1. Dissemination of the Regional Strategy for Sustainable Economies for the Amazon – Socio-bioeconomy for the Amazon, presented during the recent Summit of Amazon Presidents and conceived as the regional framework for promoting a development model based on biodiversity, innovation, inclusion and sustainability.
2. Announcement of the IDB’s technical cooperation,which will be implemented in partnership with the IICA to support the strategy’s implementation by the ATCO and the Amazon countries, strengthening national capabilities, regional coordination and transformative investments.
According to the document approved by the IDB, the cooperation will focus on institutional strengthening, regional planning, public policy design, investment mapping and formulation, good practices of the Amazon bioeconomy and multi-stakeholder coordination, with a special emphasis on models that integrate conservation, rural productivity and the creation of territorial value.
A strategic partnership to scale up the Amazon socio-bioeconomy
During the event, it became clear that the joint cooperation by the ACTO,the IDB and IICA will provide the strategic underpinnings for the efforts to move from analysis to concrete action in the territories.
• The ACTO will provide political governance, regional dialogue among the countries and coordination of the process.
• The IDB will provide financing, technical assistance and the capacity to structure impact investments.
• IICA will act as the operational arm on the ground, connecting ministries of agriculture, environment and energy, and deploying technical cooperation and knowledge platforms to speed up implementation of the strategy.
However, the institutions emphasized that the transformation of the Amazon calls for much broader coordination. The participants in the event, organized by the ACTO, included IICA, the Latin American Bioeconomy Network,IIAP Peru, CONEXSUS, IMAFLORA, PROAmazonía, WRI, the Pan-Amazon Bioeconomy Network, CONFENIAE, ISA-REDARIO, FAO and other key organizations within the Amazon ecosystem.
The socio-bioeconomy must be built by and within the territories.
The panelists agreed that the Amazon’s socio-bioeconomy is, by its very nature, a model based on complex relationships that requires coordination among multiple sectors and levels of government, public and private investment, science, innovation and the active participation of indigenous peoples and local communities. They emphasized that the strategy will only achieve sustainable results if it is built by and within the territories themselves, respecting local identities, knowledge and aspirations, and connecting national policies with regional frameworks, community projects with global funding and scientific knowledge with rural innovation.
The project
The technical cooperation approved by the IDB—which will be implemented jointly with IICA—will have a direct impact by strengthening the ACTO’s Regional Strategy for Sustainable Economies in the Amazon,supporting the Amazon countries on issues such as:
• the development of public policy instruments,
• economic and environmental analysis of key value chains,
• the design of investments for the bioeconomy and restoration,
• close coordination of regional networks and communities of practice,
• promotion of markets and bio-enterprises,
• institutional strengthening and multi-level governance.
This partnership will make it possible to advance towards an economic model that combines competitiveness with inclusion and sustainability, and to consolidate the Amazon as a global benchmark for nature-based solutionsand sustainable rural development.
More information:
Institutional Communication Division.
comunicacion.institucional@iica.int
