RIODEJANEIRO: Brazil says military aircraft and 44,000 troops will be available to fight fires sweeping through parts of the Amazon region.
AFP■ Smoke billows from the Jamanxim national forest in Novo Progresso, Para, Brazil.The defence and environment ministers on Saturday described plans to battle the blazes that have prompted an international outcry as well as demonstrations in Brazil against President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the environmental crisis.
Bolsonaro on Friday authorised the military to get involved in putting out the fires, saying he is committed to protecting the Amazon region.
Bolsonaro has previously described rainforest protection as an obstacle to Brazil’s economic development, sparring with critics who say the Amazon absorbs vast amounts of greenhouse gasses and is crucial for efforts to contain climate change.
Many of the fires were set in already deforested areas by people clearing farmland.
HUNDREDS OF NEW FIRES
Hundreds of new fires are raging in the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil, official data showed on Saturday, amid growing international pressure Bolsonaro to control the blazes.
Multiple fires were seen across a vast area of the northwestern state of Rondonia on Friday.
Several people in the capital Porto Velho told AFP on Saturday that what appeared to be light clouds hanging over the city was actually smoke from the blazes.
“I’m very worried because of the environment and health,” Delmara Conceicao Silva said.
“I have a daughter with respiratory problems and she suffers more because of the fires.”
The fires in the world’s largest rainforest have triggered a global outcry and are a major topic of concern at the G7 meeting in Biarritz in southern France.
Official figures show 78,383 forest fires have been recorded in Brazil this year, the highest number of any year since 2013. Experts say the clearing of land during the months-long dry season to make way for crops or grazing has aggravated the problem.