PORTO VELHO,Brazil: Hundreds of new fires are raging in the Amazon rainforest in northernBrazil, official data showed yesterday, amid growing international pressure onPresident Jair Bolsonaro to control the worst blazes in years. Multiple fireswere seen across a vast area of the northwestern state of Rondonia on Fridaywhen AFP journalists flew over the area.
Several people inthe capital Porto Velho told AFP Saturday that what appeared to be light cloudshanging over the city was actually smoke from the blazes. "I'm veryworried because of the environment and health," Delmara Conceicao Silvatold AFP. "I have a daughter with respiratory problems and she suffersmore because of the fires."
The fires in theworld's largest rainforest have triggered a global outcry and are a major topicof concern at the G7 meeting in Biarritz in southern France. Official figuresshow 78,383 forest fires have been recorded in Brazil this year, the highestnumber of any year since 2013. Experts say the clearing of land during themonths-long dry season to make way for crops or grazing has aggravated theproblem.
More than half ofthe fires are in the Amazon, where more than 20 million people live. Some 1,663new fires were ignited between Thursday and Friday, according to Brazil'sNational Institute for Space Research (INPE). The new data came a day afterBolsonaro authorized the deployment of the military to fight the fires andcrack down on criminal activity in the region.
US PresidentDonald Trump and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, both attending the G7 summit,have offered their countries' assistance in fighting the fires. "Any helpis welcome in respect to the fires," Brazil's Defense Minister FernandoAzevedo e Silva told reporters yesterday. The blazes have stirred outrageglobally, with thousands of people protesting in Brazil and Europe on Friday.More demonstrations are planned in Brazil today.
Earlier thisweek, Bolsonaro blamed the fires on non-governmental organizations, suggestingthey deliberately started them after their funding was cut. The growing crisisthreatens to torpedo a blockbuster trade deal between the European Union andSouth American countries, including Brazil, that took 20 years to negotiate. EUCouncil president Donald Tusk told reporters at the G7 yesterday that it washard to imagine European countries ratifying a trade pact with the Mercosurbloc as long as Brazil fails to curb the fires ravaging the Amazon, which isknown as the "lungs of the planet" because of its crucial role inmitigating climate change.
French PresidentEmmanuel Macron, who has taken the lead in pressing his Brazilian counterpartover the fires, had earlier accused Bolsonaro of lying to him about Brazil'sstance on climate change. Environmental specialists say the fires are comingamid increasing deforestation in the Amazon region, which in July took place ata rate four times that of the same month in 2018, according to data from INPE.
Bolsonaro haspreviously attacked the institute, describing its data as lies and engineeringthe sacking of its head. On Friday, he insisted that the fires should not beused as an excuse to punish Brazil. "There are forest fires all over theworld, and this cannot be used as a pretext for possible internationalsanctions," Bolsonaro said.
Brazil's powerfulagriculture sector - which strongly supports Bolsonaro - has expressed concernsover the president's rhetoric, fearing boycotts of their products in keymarkets. In an editorial yesterday, the respected Folha de S.Paulo newspaperwarned that Bolsonaro's "bravado" had worsened the crisis caused byaccelerating deforestation. "The damage to (Brazil's) image is done and itcould have important trade repercussions," it said. "Nationalisticbravado will not win the game this time." - AFP