Representatives from 35 countries will seek ways to protect the world's largest rainforests during a week-long meeting in Congo Republic starting on Tuesday.
The outcome of the summit could play a role in the preservation of some 80 percent of the world's remaining forests, seen by experts as key to offsetting rising global emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide.
Environment ministers and some heads of state will be among the delegates aiming to draft a cooperation agreement to preserve the Amazon in South America, the Congo in Central Africa, and the Borneo-Mekong in Indonesia.
"We need to work together to promote best forest practices in the three basins. This is the main objective of the summit," Congo's Forest Economy Minister Henri Djombo said at the official opening of the summit on Monday.
"We are called upon to reduce deforestation and better manage our forests, so we need to be more rational about how we use them," he ...