Brazil rejects G7 aid to fight Amazon fire

The Government of Brazil has announced that it will reject an offer of aid from G7 countries to help tackle fires in the Amazon rainforest.

French President Emmanuel Macron - who hosted a G7 summit that ended on Monday - said $22m would be released for the global effort to bring the fires under control.

But Brazilian ministers have now declared that the money is not needed and have accused foreign powers of wanting control of the Amazon.

Satellite data show fires - mostly in the Amazon region - are burning at record levels.

Commenting on the G7 offer of aid, Onyx Lorenzoni, Chief of Staff for Brazil’s President, Jair Bolsonaro, told the Globo news website: "Thanks, but maybe those resources are more relevant to reforest Europe.

"Macron cannot even avoid a predictable fire in a church that is part of the world's heritage, and he wants to give us lessons for our country?" Mr Lorenzoni added, in a reference to the fire that hit Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris in April.

Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo contends that there are already mechanisms under the auspices of the UN climate convention to fight deforestation.

He added in a tweet that efforts were being made by “some political currents,” to “extrapolate real environmental issues into a fabricated 'crisis' as a pretext for introducing mechanisms for external control of the Amazon are very evident.”

G7 announcement

The $22m was announced on Monday as the leaders of the G7 - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US - met in Biarritz, France.

Mr Macron said the funds would be made available immediately - primarily to pay for more fire fighting planes - and that France would also "offer concrete support with military in the region".

But Mr Bolsonaro - who has been engaged in a public row with Mr Macron in recent weeks - accused the French president of launching "unreasonable and gratuitous attacks against the Amazon region", and "hiding his intentions behind the idea of an 'alliance' of G7 countries".

SOURCE: BBC