SAO PAULO, Brazil — President Jair Bolsonaro said Tuesday he might revisit his country’s rejection of a $22.2 million package from the Group of Seven nations to help fight fires spiking across the Amazon rainforest.
But he made clear any consideration of the aid remained tied up in his dispute with French President Emmanuel Macron — even as officials in the fire-stricken regions spoke of negotiating directly with other countries for help.
Bolsonaro said he wouldn’t make a final decision until Macron apologized for remarks that Bolsonaro considered a challenge to his credibility.
“Before speaking or accepting anything from France, even if it comes from the best possible intentions, he must retract his words,” he told journalists Tuesday. “Then we can talk.”
Brazilian farmer Helio Lombardo Do Santos and a dog walk through a burned area of the Amazon rainforest, near Porto Velho, Rondonia state on Aug. 26. (Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images)
Macron threatened last week to block a free-trade agreement between the European Union and South America, saying Bolsonaro had lied to him about his commitment to the environment. Over the weekend, Bolsonaro mocked the appearance of Macron’s wife.
[Now begins the biggest challenge of the Amazon fires: Putting them out]
Brazil’s ambassador to France told national television early Tuesday that the country would reject the G-7 offer because it had not been included in the decision-making process. Bolsonaro — a climate change skeptic — has accused the donors of a “colonial mentality.”
“We cannot accept that a President, Macron, issues inappropriate and gratuitous attacks against the Amazon,” he tweeted. “Nor that he disguises his intentions behind an ‘alliance’ of the G-7 countries to ‘save’ the Amazon, as if it were a colony or no man’s land.”
Brazil has long been wary of foreigners’ interest in the rainforest.
Macron said Monday an international statute protecting the Amazon would be “a real possibility if a sovereign state took concrete actions that clearly went against the interest of the planet.”
“The challenge when it comes to climate is such that nobody can say, ‘It is not my problem,’ ” he said.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro meets with governors of the Amazon states Aug. 27 at Planalto Palace in Brasilia. (Marcos Correa/AFP/Getty Images)
Bolsonaro’s administration appeared split on whether to accept the G-7 offer. His environmental minister said Monday he welcomed the aid.
“I think we need to aggregate as many tools as possible to resolve this,” Environment Minister Ricardo Salles said on Brazilian television.
Governors in the Amazon said they were willing to bypass Brazil’s federal government and negotiate directly with Europe.
“We cannot be without these resources,” Wilson Lima, the governor of Amazonas state, told the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo.
[The world wants to save the Amazon rainforest. Brazil’s Bolsonaro says hands off.]
But Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo urged countries to channel aid through the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change instead of creating new initiatives.
“It is very clear that some political channels are trying to extrapolate real environmental concerns and use them in a fabricated ‘crisis’ as a pretext to introduce mechanisms for foreign control of the Amazon,” he tweeted.
Bolsonaro has been open to support from some countries. He accepted an offer from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to send Israeli airplanes and pilots experienced in fighting fires. President Trump has said the United States is ready to help.
“I have gotten to know President @jairbolsonaro well in our dealings with Brazil,” Trump tweeted Tuesday. “He is working very hard on the Amazon fires and in all respects doing a great job for the people of Brazil — Not easy. He and his country have the full and complete support of the USA!”
Bolsonaro thanked Trump.
“We’re fighting the wildfires with great success,” he tweeted in response to the U.S. president. “Brazil is and will always be an international reference in sustainable development. The fake news campaign built against our sovereignty will not work.”
Several of Brazil’s South American neighbors have also offered assistance. Bolsonaro said Tuesday he planned to meet with Colombian President Iván Duque to “develop a joint plan that respects our sovereignty and development.”
Bolivian President Evo Morales, meanwhile, suggested the international commitment wasn’t enough.
“I appreciate this small, small, very small contribution of the G-7,” he told Pan-American Radio. “That is not aid, it is part of a shared responsibility, of which we all have an obligation.”
[The Amazon is burning. Bolsonaro says his critics are setting the fires, to make him look bad.]
Bolsonaro, trying to lift his country out of years of economic stagnation, campaigned for president last year on promises to open the Amazon to development. Since his inauguration in January, deforestation and fires — many of them started by farmers and loggers to clear land — have surged.
Smoke rises over a deforested plot of the Amazon jungle Aug. 27 in Porto Velho, Brazil. (Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters)
The number of blazes in the Amazon states has risen by more than 75 percent this year, and the rate at which they’re scorching the earth has doubled.
The Amazon — 2.12 million square miles across Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia and other countries — serves as a key defense against climate change. It takes in 25 percent of the carbon dioxide absorbed by the world’s forests.
But scientists warn that deforestation is approaching a tipping point — between 20 percent and 25 percent — when the damage could be irreversible, and large swaths could transform into savanna.
Earlier this month, Germany and Norway cut a combined $72 million in aid to the Amazon after Bolsonaro said he would give some of the money to cattle and soy farmers.
The fires have become Bolsonaro’s biggest international and domestic crisis since taking office. Macron has threatened to block the long-negotiated Mercosur-E.U. trade deal over Bolsonaro’s Amazon policies, and polls show support for Bolsonaro and his government is slipping.
[Bolsonaro’s Amazon-sized spat with Germany and Norway threatens Europe-South America trade deal]
A meeting between Bolsonaro and governors of the Amazon states Tuesday revealed divisions among the officials. Some governors joined the president in accusing Macron of using the fires to violate Brazil’s sovereignty. Some cited mounting unemployment rates and asked for looser regulations to stimulate the economy.
“It is possible to use resources in a sustainable way that respects the environment, but in a way that allows our people and our country to grow,” said Antonio Denarium, governor of Roraima state.
Bolsonaro blamed international interference for hampering growth in the region.
“A large part of the money comes from outside Brazil, and that has a price,” he said. He noted the demarcation of indigenous lands and protected areas.
“Indians don’t lobby, they don’t speak our language, but they are able to get 14 percent of our national territory,” he said.
Bolsonaro appears with Chief of Staff Onyx Lorenzoni, left, and Defense Minister Fernando Azevedo e Silva, right, at the meeting with the governors on Aug. 27. (Marcos Correa/AFP/Getty Images)
But several governors pleaded with Bolsonaro to reconcile with the international community.
“If Brazil isolates itself internationally, it exposes itself to very serious sanctions,” said Flávio Dino, the governor of Maranhao state. “A defense of Brazilian sovereignty, a defense of Brazilian business demands dialogue with other countries.”
He urged the administration to accept aid offered to Brazil.
“Public finances, as you know, are very depreciated,” he said. “We cannot tear up money, because tearing up money would not be sensible in the current context.”
[Amazon fires could accelerate global warming and cause lasting harm to a cradle of biodiversity]
Analysts said Brazil’s ambivalence about the G-7 offer, as it welcomes overtures by the United States and Israel, shows how rising nationalism is increasingly hindering international responses to global challenges such as climate change.
“This new polarization between nationalism and globalism is playing out in a Brazilian way the same way it’s playing in the U.S. and in Europe,” said Mauricio Santoro, a professor of international relations at the State University of Rio de Janeiro.
Santoro said it also reveals a paradox at the heart of Bolsonaro’s administration: As he’s moving to jump-start the Brazilian economy with trade agreements, he’s undercutting those efforts with appeals to nationalism that offend trading partners.
“If you want to get access to international markets, you have to follow international rules,” Santoro said. “It’s a trade-off between nationalism and globalism.”
In Rio de Janeiro, where a majority voted for Bolsonaro in last year’s presidential election, some were reconsidering that choice Tuesday.
Valerie Ottoni, a security worker at the Santos Dumont Airport, said she voted for Bolsonaro because he seemed willing to take on the corruption and crime plaguing the country.
“He appeared like a hero to Brazil, but now we’re thinking of all the things he’s doing,” said Ottoni, 51. “We shouldn’t be closed to international alarms. We’re not stupid. This will be difficult for him to take this decision.”
Others were sure Bolsonaro knew what was best for the Amazon and Brazil. Some perceived ulterior motives in the G-7 offer.
“It’s not to help,” said Fabiama Lobo, 39, who works at a jewelry store. “It’s to get the forest’s resources.”
Micheul Feliciano, 30, agreed that other countries covet the Amazon. But he didn’t think it should stop Bolsonaro from accepting aid — not with the stakes this high.
“The forest is more important than all of this,” he said.
Seven Brazilian states have called on the army for help with the fires. On Saturday, the Defense Ministry announced 44,000 soldiers were ready to fight the fires.
McCoy reported from Rio de Janeiro.
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