Brazil Says It Will Reject Millions in Amazon Aid Pledged at G7 - The New York Times

RIO DE JANEIRO — Hours after leaders of some of the world’s wealthiest countries pledged more than $22 million to help combat fires in the Amazon rainforest, Brazil’s government angrily rejected the offer, in effect telling the other nations to mind their own business — only to later lay out potential terms for the aid’s acceptance.

President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil expressed his ire in a series of Twitter posts on Monday, and specifically criticized and taunted President Emmanuel Macron of France, who had announced the aid package at the Group of 7 summit meeting. Their comments extended a verbal feud between the two leaders.

But early the next day, Mr. Bolsonaro offered possible terms for the acceptance of the aid package when he spoke to reporters in the capital, Brasília.

He said that if Mr. Macron withdrew “insults made to my person,” and what Mr. Bolsonaro interpreted as insinuations that Brazil does not have sovereignty over the Amazon, he would reconsider.

“To talk or accept anything from France, even with their very best intentions, he will have to withdraw his words, and then we can talk,” Mr. Bolsonaro said. “First he withdraws them, then he makes the offer, and then I’ll answer.”

Mr. Bolsonaro, who has suggested earlier that Mr. Macon’s real motive is to shield France’s agriculture from Brazilian competition, had tweeted on Monday that the president “disguises his intentions behind the idea of an ‘alliance’ of the G7 countries to ‘save’ the Amazon, as if we were a colony or a no-man’s land.”

His chief of staff, Onyx Lorenzoni, told the Globo broadcast network that the administration would be turning down the offer, and insulted Mr. Macron with a reference to the fire that gutted the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris in April. The Brazilian government later confirmed his comments, Globo reported.

“Thanks, but perhaps these resources are more relevant to reforesting Europe,” Mr. Lorenzoni told the news organization. “Can Macron not even prevent a predictable fire in a church that is a World Heritage Site and wants to teach what for our country? He has a lot to look after at home and in the French colonies.”

More than 26,000 forest fires have been recorded in the Amazon rainforest this month, the highest number in a decade, setting off international outrage and calls for greater protections.

The forests absorb a significant share of the planet’s climate-warming carbon dioxide, are home to Indigenous peoples, and are a vital habitat for endangered species.

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In an interview with the Brazilian television program “Roda Vida,” the country’s environment minister, Ricardo Salles, seemed to contradict Mr. Lorenzoni’s view.

He said he thought “it is important to accept the help that was offered,” because it would provide equipment to help combat the fires.

The environment secretary for the state of Amazonas, the biggest in Brazil’s Amazon region, said that a lack of resources has been hampering his state’s ability to fight the fire effectively. While he agreed that the terms of help should be negotiated, he also believed that resources from the G7 could be put to good use.

“From a technical point of view, it would be very welcome,” the environment secretary, Eduardo Taveira, said in a phone interview. “Obviously the states hope, at this moment, resources will come in to help finance the operations that are being organized.”

A representative of an association of public servants who work in Brazil’s environmental agencies, Elizabeth Uema, also reinforced the idea that, much as Brazil’s sovereignty must be respected, the country is not in a position to reject help.

The federal government had already jeopardized the relationship with the Europeans countries who donated to the Amazon Fund. The fund bankrolled much of the equipment used in environmental law enforcement, and the main donor nation, Norway, has suspended its contributions.

Brazil also cut 25 percent of the budget for the main environmental agency, Ibama, this year.

“We need all the help we can get,” said Ms. Uema. “But, of course, the terms need to be negotiated.”

President Trump praised Mr. Bolsonaro on Tuesday, posting on Twitter, “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!”

In Brazil, approval of Mr. Bolsonaro’s government has plummeted: 39.5 percent of Brazilians evaluate it as bad or terrible, up from 19 percent in February, according to a poll by MDA/CNT, which conducted the survey between Aug. 22 and Aug. 25.

Approval of the president’s personal performance also dropped substantially, according to the same poll, with 53.7 percent of Brazilians evaluating it as bad or terrible, up from 28.2 in February. Despite the widespread attention to the fires in the Amazon, the Bolsonaro administration was rated worst in its management of the health sector. The environment came second.

Mr. Bolsonaro has been widely criticized by environmentalists for calls to open up protected parts of the Amazon rainforest for logging, farming, mining and other development, which many say has caused further exploitation of the region. The illegally set fires and resulting deforestation, critics say, are being driven by his policies.

Mr. Bolsonaro has flung criticism at Mr. Macron since last week, when the French leader put the Amazon fires on the Group of 7 agenda and called the situation a global crisis. Mr. Bolsonaro said Mr. Macron had a “colonialist mind-set,” while Mr. Macron accused the Brazilian leader of lying about his commitment to fighting climate change.

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