Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro plans to deploy the army to tackle the wildfires raging in the Amazon rainforest.
The troops will be deployed starting Saturday for the next month, according to a presidential decree obtained by CNN.
“The Amazon rainforest is an essential part of our history, our territory and everything that makes us feel,” Bolsonaro said during a speech Friday. “Being Brazilian, our wealth is invaluable both in terms of biodiversity and natural resources.”
Bolsonaro added that his military public service background contributes to his “deep love and respect” for the Amazon.
“Protecting the forest is our duty, acting to combat illegal deforestation and any other criminal activities that put our Amazon at risk,” he said.
Brazil’s environmental agency, IBAMA, is also hiring hundreds of temporary firefighters to help fight the fires, the agency announced on Friday.
The announcement came as political, civil society leaders and celebrities around the world stepped up their pressure on the Brazilian government over the blazing rainforest.
France and Ireland said they would block a trade deal between the European Union and Mercosur, the economic and political bloc comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, unless Brazil takes action on the Amazon forest.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday angered Bolsonaro by calling the wildfires blazing in the Amazon rainforest an “international crisis” that should be on the agenda at the G7 summit in Biarritz, France.
“Our house is burning. Literally. The Amazon rain forest – the lungs of our planet which produces 20% of our oxygen – is on fire. It is an international crisis,” Macron tweeted.
At the same time, Macron accused the Brazilian President of “lying” to him on his climate commitments, the Elysée Palace confirmed to CNN.
Bolsonaro blasted Macron’s offer as “sensationalist” and accused him of using the fires for political gain.
“I regret that President Macron is seeking to instrumentalize an internal issue in Brazil and in other Amazonian countries for personal political gains,” Bolsonaro tweeted.
“The suggestion of the French president that Amazonian issues be discussed in the G7 without countries in the region participating is reminiscent of a colonial mindset inappropriate in the 21st century,” he said in a second tweet.
The G7 nations are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
“Forest fires exist around the world, and this cannot serve as a pretext for possible international sanctions,” Bolsonaro said during his speech Friday. He added that world leaders need to be calm when discussing the wildfires.
“Spreading unfounded data and messages inside or outside Brazil does not help solve the problem and lends itself only to political use and misinformation,” he said.
Friday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reiterated Macron’s stance and said international cooperation is needed to protect rainforests.
A Downing Street spokesperson told CNN that Johnson believes “we need international action to protect the world’s rainforests” and he “will use G7 to call for a renewed focus on protecting nature and tackling climate change together.”
The German government also backed Macron’s calls to discuss the Amazon forest fires at the G7.
German Environment Minister Svenja Schulze added the Mercosur trade agreement “cannot be justified without guarantees that the rainforest will be protected.”
Schulze said South America, and Brazil in particular, “deserve our support when it comes to preserving the rainforest. … However, Brazil itself must want this assistance, and not counteract it with a national policy of increased clearance,” she said.
Bolsonaro tweeted Friday a trade deal had been reached between Mercosur and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) after EU member states criticized his response to the wildfires.
“We concluded today the negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement between MERCOSUR and EFTA (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein), which has a GDP of $ 1.1 trillion and is the 9th largest trading actor in the world. Another big victory for our trade opening diplomacy,” Bolsonaro tweeted.
President Donald Trump said Friday on Twitter he spoke with Bolsonaro.
“Our future Trade prospects are very exciting and our relationship is strong, perhaps stronger than ever before. I told him if the United States can help with the Amazon Rainforest fires, we stand ready to assist!” Trump tweeted.
A US State Department spokesperson said in a statement to CNN that the United States shares “the Brazilian government’s concerns about the Amazon forest fires and their impact on the region’s communities and natural resources.” The spokesperson also said the Brazilian government hasn’t requested assistance, but “we stand ready to consider any such request.”
“The Department of State, USAID, and other US government agencies deploy funding appropriated by Congress each year to help partners around the world address deforestation and wildfires through a number of ongoing programs, including through technical partnerships in Brazil,” the spokesperson said. “The Department of State continues to work with Brazil on increasing investment in healthy forests, creating incentives to protect these critical natural resources.”
Brazil’s space research center (INPE) said this week that the country has seen an 85% increase in fires this year, compared with the same period last year. More than half were in the Amazon region, spelling disaster for the local environment and ecology.
And 99% percent of the fires result from human actions “either on purpose or by accident,” said Alberto Setzer, a senior scientist at INPE. The burning can range from a small-scale agricultural practice, to new deforestation for a mechanized and modern agribusiness project, Setzer told CNN by email.
“We are in a traditionally hot, dry and high-wind season, where, unfortunately, burns occur every year in the Amazon region,” Bolsonaro said. “In rainier years, the fires are less intense. In warmer years, as in this 2019, they occur more often.”
Environmental organizations and researchers say the wildfires were set by cattle ranchers and loggers who want to clear and utilize the land, emboldened by the country’s pro-business President.
Amnesty International on Thursday said responsibility for the fires “lies squarely with President Bolsonaro and his government,” adding that his government’s “disastrous policy of opening up the rainforest for destruction (is) what has paved the way for this current crisis.”
In a Facebook Live video Thursday, Bolsonaro suggested multiple parties could be to blame.
“Who carries this out? I don’t know. Farmers, NGOs, whoever it may be, Indians, whoever it may be,” Bolsonaro said. He added there are “suspicions” that ranchers are behind the forest fires and appealed to the Brazilian people to “help us” combat the blazes.
‘Looking at untold destruction’
The Amazon is the largest tropical rainforest in the world and accounts for at least 10% of the planet’s biodiversity.
It’s home to huge numbers of mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles, 75% of which are unique to the Amazon. A new plant or animal species is discovered there every two days.
But the forest and its inhabitants are facing an unparalleled threat from deforestation – 20% of the Amazon biome has already been lost to mining, logging, farming, hydropower dams and roads, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
Deforestation accelerated more than 60% in June 2019 over the same period last year, INPE’s data shows. The Amazon lost 769 square kilometers (297 square miles), a stark increase from the 488 square kilometers (188 square miles) lost in June 2018. That equates to an area of rainforest larger than one-and-a-half soccer fields being destroyed every minute each day.
The Amazon forest also produces about 20% of the world’s oxygen and is often called “the planet’s lungs.”
Before the fires, land conversion and deforestation caused the Amazon to release up to 0.5 billion metric tons of carbon per year, according to the WWF. Depending on the damage from the fires, that release would increase, accelerating climate change.
“The Amazon is incredibly important for our future, for our ability to stave off the worst of climate change,” said Christian Poirier, the program director of non-profit organization Amazon Watch. “This isn’t hyperbole. We’re looking at untold destruction – not just of the Amazon but for our entire planet.”
Environmentalists are blaming Bolsonaro
More than two-thirds of the Amazon are located in Brazil and environmental groups accuse Bolsonaro, who has previously said he is not “Captain Chainsaw,” of relaxing environmental controls in the country and encouraging deforestation.
When running for president, Bolsonaro made campaign promises to restore the economy by exploring the Amazon’s economic potential. Now, environmental organizations say he has encouraged ranchers, farmers and loggers to exploit and burn the rainforest like never before with a sense of impunity.
Bolsonaro has hamstrung Brazil’s environmental enforcement agency with budget cuts amounting to $23 million – official data sent to CNN by Observatorio do Clima shows the enforcement agency’s operations have fallen since Bolsonaro was sworn in.
The director of Brazil’s space research center INPE was recently fired after defending satellite images that showed deforestation was 88% higher in June than a year earlier – data that Bolsonaro characterized as “lies.”
“The vast majority of these fires are human-lit,” said Amazon Watch’s Poirier, adding that even during dry seasons, the Amazon – a humid rainforest – doesn’t catch on fire easily, unlike the dry bushland in California or Australia.
Farmers and ranchers have long used fire to clear land, said Poirier, and are likely behind the unusually large number fires burning in the Amazon today.
This year’s fires fit with an established seasonal agricultural pattern, said CNN meteorologist Haley Brink.
“It’s the best time to burn because the vegetation is dry. (Farmers) wait for the dry season and they start burning and clearing the areas so that their cattle can graze. And that’s what we’re suspecting is going on down there.”
CNN’s Taylor Barnes, Abel Alvarado and Amir Vera contributed from Atlanta and Barbara Wojazer and Ivana Kottasová contributed from London.