Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has reacted to the fires in Brazil: according to media reports, the right-wing populist has banned firewalking for a period of two months. The politician is said to have signed a nationwide decree on Wednesday, was citing government circles reported. The decree will therefore be published in the Official Journal on Thursday.
According to the news portal "G1", there should be exceptions, but they must be approved by the Environmental Protection Agency. Indigenous communities, which are self-sufficient, may also continue to operate fire-clearing cultivation in order to use small plots in the rainforest for the cultivation of vegetables.
Bolsonaro is under increasing pressure due to the forest fires (read more about the fires here). Critics accuse the Brazilian government of not acting energetically enough against the disaster. The president is close to the agrarian lobby and doubts man-made climate change. Environmentalists blame Bolsonaro for having massively increased fires in the Amazon this year.
Other states in the region are also affected by severe forest fires. The Bolivian government led by President Evo Morales said Wednesday that fire has devastated 1.2 million hectares of forest and grasslands this year. Environmentalists assume a much larger area. Morales is also under pressure because of the fires
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The fires in Brazil are the strongest in years. According to recent data from the research institute Inpe, there were almost 80,000 fires since the beginning of the year. Compared to the previous year, this is an increase of 77 percent. The flames rage mainly in the states Rondônia, Roraima and Mato Grosso, Pará and in the neighboring countries Paraguay and Bolivia. That it can come to individual fires during the dry season, is normal. But most of the fires have been laid by humans.
Predominantly the damp rain forest does not burn, but wood on areas that were cleared for grazing land and farmland for soybean cultivation months ago. The fact that it is currently burning shows only where the rainforest has already been destroyed.