Brasília - Amazon region countries take another step toward achieving greater regional cooperation with the 1st Meeting of Ministers and High Authorities in Science and Technology of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (1ª Reunião de Ministros e Altas Autoridades de Ciência e Tecnologia dos Estados Membros da Organização do Tratado de Cooperação Amazônica)(OTCA), which begins today in Lima, Peru. Representatives from Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guiana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela will participate.

This meeting will take up a series of issues raised at the VIII Foreign Ministers Meeting of the OTCA which was held last year, and follows on the heels of the 1st Meeting of Authorities in Intellectual Property and Industry. Among the principal issues at all these meetings has been knowledge management and technology exchange within the framework of the reality on the ground in the Amazon region with the objective of achieving sustainable development and regional cooperation. The meeting today in Lima will also deal with ways and means to strengthen science and technology in the Amazon so as to ensure sustainable development and protection of the region's biodiversity.

Translator: Allen Bennett