Brasilia/Brussels
(Reuters)
European
leaders on Friday threatened to tear up a trade deal with South America,
reflecting growing international anger at Brazil as a record number of fires in
the Amazon rainforest intensified an unfolding environmental crisis.
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| Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas State, Brazil, Brazil August 17, 2019. |
Amid a global chorus of concern and condemnation,
Brazil’s right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro pledged in an address to the
nation to mobilize the army to help combat the blazes, while his administration
launched a diplomatic charm offensive to try to mend bridges overseas.
Forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon, which
accounts for more than half of the world’s largest rainforest, have surged in
number by 83% this year, according to government data, destroying vast swathes
of a vital bulwark against global climate change.
French President Emmanuel Macron called for G7
leaders to discuss the environmental crisis in Brazil at a summit this weekend
in the French coastal resort of Biarritz. Both France and Ireland threatened to
oppose an EU trade deal struck in June with a regional South American bloc
following Brazil’s response.
Images of fires raging in the Amazon broadcast
around the globe sparked protests outside Brazilian embassies from Mexico City
and Lima to London and Paris.
In the Cypriot capital Nicosia, a sign tied to the
railings of Brazil’s diplomatic mission read: “The Amazon belongs to Earth not
to the Brazilian president.”
Bolsonaro, who initially accused non-governmental
organizations of setting the forest on fire without providing any evidence,
said in a televised address he had authorized the use of troops to fight the
fires and stop illegal deforestation in the Amazon.
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| Brazil's Army soldiers parade during a military ceremony for the Day of the Soldier, at Army Headquarters in Brasilia, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 23, 2019. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro says he's leaning toward sending the army to help fight Amazon fires that have alarmed people across the globe. |
But the former military officer attributed the
scale of the fires to dryer-than-average weather and insisted on the need for
economic development of the Amazon to improve the lives of its 20 million
inhabitants.
Environmentalists have warned that his
controversial plans for more agriculture and mining in the region will speed up
deforestation.
“We have to give the population the opportunity to
develop and my government is working for that, with zero tolerance for crime -
and that is no different for the environment,” Bolsonaro said in his televised
speech.
Polls show Brazilians overwhelmingly oppose his
policy on the environment and as he spoke to the nation, residents in large
cities across Brazil banged on pots and pans in a traditional Latin American
form of protest.
U.S. President Donald Trump - whose skeptical views
on climate change Bolsonaro shares - called the Brazilian president to offer
help, if needed, in dealing with the wildfires.
“I told him if the United States can help with the
Amazon rainforest fires, we stand ready to assist!” Trump said in a post on
Twitter.
The wildfires now look set to be discussed at the
summit of G7 leaders in France this weekend, where Macron has called for
leaders to sign a charter to protect biodiversity. The French leader said an
“ecocide” was taking place in the Amazon that required an international
response.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted that
the fires were “not only heartbreaking, they are an international crisis,”
while a spokeswoman said Johnson would use the summit to call for a renewed
focus on protecting nature.
France and Ireland said on Friday they would now
oppose the E.U.-Mercosur farming deal struck in June between the European Union
and the Mercosur countries of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
The French president’s office accused Bolsonaro of
lying when he downplayed concerns over climate change at the G20 summit in
June.
“There is no way that Ireland will vote for the
EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement if Brazil does not honor its environmental
commitments,” Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said in a statement.
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| Charred trunks are seen on a tract of Amazon jungle that was recently burned by loggers and farmers in Porto Velho, Brazil August 23, 2019. |
The EU-Mercosur deal took 20 years to negotiate,
but will not be officially ratified for at least another two years.
Brazilian business leaders also warned the backlash
over Brazil’s environmental record could sink its efforts to join the
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a Paris-based
club of 37 developed nations whose imprimatur is required by many institutional
investors.
Stung by the international outcry, Brazil
distributed a 12-page circular, exclusively seen by Reuters, to foreign
embassies, outlining data and statistics defending the government’s reputation
on the environment.
Having first dismissed the fires as natural, then
blaming non-governmental organizations without evidence for lighting them,
Bolsonaro appeared to adopt a more serious approach on Friday following the
international outcry, summoning top cabinet members for an afternoon meeting to
tailor a response.
Agriculture Minister Tereza Cristina Dias insisted
that Brazil was “taking care” of the Amazon, and that international concerns
over the fires needed to cool down.
“The news is worrying, but I think we have to lower
the temperature. The Amazon is important, Brazil knows that, and Brazil is
taking care of the Amazon,” she told reporters.
The Brazilian space agency INPE has registered
72,843 fires this year, the highest number since records began in 2013. More
than 9,500 have been spotted by satellites over the past week.
Although fires are a regular and natural occurrence
during the dry season at this time of year, environmentalists blamed the jump
on farmers clearing land for pasture.
Farmers may have had at least tacit encouragement
from the firebrand right-wing president, who took power in January.
Bolsonaro has repeatedly said he believes Brazil
should open up the Amazon to business interests, allowing mining, agricultural
and logging companies to exploit its natural resources.
On Thursday, Bolsonaro admitted for the first time
that farmers may be behind some of the fires but he responded angrily to what
he saw as foreign interference.
Some foreign donors - including the biggest, Norway
- have slashed their funding to an Amazon Fund designed to curb deforestation
in the region in protest at changes introduced by Brazil that blocked its
operations.
“These countries that send money here, they don’t
send it out of charity ... They send it with the aim of interfering with our
sovereignty,” Bolsonaro said.
Alexandre Antonelli, director of science at
Britain’s Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, urged that import sanctions be imposed on
Brazil because of the fires.
“Immediate action is necessary to extinguish the
current fires and prevent future ones,” the Brazilian scientist said.
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