Bolsonaro said, “Our units have started working in the region. Now, the forest is not as burning as people say. The fire occurs (in the area) where people deforest”.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (Photo: IANS)
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Saturday that the Amazon rainforest now “is not burning as people say”, in a bid to ease global concerns over the massive wildfires that were devastating the world’s largest tropical rainforest.
Bolsonaro said, “Our units have started working in the region. Now, the forest is not as burning as people say. The fire occurs (in the area) where people deforest”.
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He further said that the average number of fires recorded this year in Brazil was lower than those in the past few years, and the situation, which has caused international attention, “is moving towards normality”, Xinhua news agency reported.
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On Friday, tens of thousands of people gathered to the streets across Brazil where they started chanting “Burn Bolsonaro and not the Amazon”, in protest against President Jair Bolsonaro’s inaction in the face of massive wildfires that were devastating the world’s largest tropical rainforest.
During a televised address to the nation on Friday, Bolsonaro argued that forest fires “exist in the whole world” and “cannot serve as a pretext for possible international sanctions”.
The President, who took office in January has moved to roll back environmental protections and to dismantle barriers to development in indigenous reserves.
The fires in the Brazilian Amazon, which accounts for more than half of the world’s largest rainforest, have surged in number by 83 per cent this year, according to government data
On Thursday, Amazon rainforest in Brazil had experienced a record amount of fires this year — more than 74,000 outbreaks so far — which was an 84 per cent increase from the same period in 2018.
Over the past week, the number of minors requiring treatment for respiratory ailments has tripled to 380 cases, according to the city authorities.
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