G-7 leaders pledge fire help for Brazil

Pope also voices rain-forest concerns

Firefighters work to put out a forest fire Sunday along the road to Jacunda National Forest in Brazil’s Rondonia state. Leaders of the Group of Seven nations said Sunday that they are preparing to help Brazil fight the fires burning across the Amazon rain forest and repair the damage.
Firefighters work to put out a forest fire Sunday along the road to Jacunda National Forest in Brazil’s Rondonia state. Leaders of the Group of Seven nations said Sunday that they are preparing to help Brazil fight the fires burning across the Amazon rain forest and repair the damage.

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Leaders of the Group of Seven nations said Sunday that they are preparing to help Brazil battle fires burning across the Amazon region and repair the damage, even as tens of thousands of soldiers got ready to join the fight against blazes that have caused global alarm.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the summit leaders were nearing an agreement on how to support Brazil and said the agreement would involve both technical and financial mechanisms "so that we can help them in the most effective way possible."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her country and others will talk with Brazil about reforestation in the Amazon once fires there have been extinguished.

"Of course [this is] Brazilian territory, but we have a question here of the rain forests that is really a global question," she said. "The lung of our whole Earth is affected, and so we must find common solutions."

Pope Francis also expressed concern over the fires in Brazil, which borders his homeland of Argentina, and urged people to pray so that "they are controlled as quickly as possible." He told a crowd in St. Peter's Square on Sunday that "we're all worried" about the Amazon fires, and that the "forest lung is vital for our planet."

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tweeted that he had talked by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said Israel would send a specialized plane to help in the firefighting operation.

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Bolsonaro announced Friday that his government would send 44,000 soldiers to help battle the fires that are scattered across his nation's share of the vast Amazon, an overall region 10 times the size of Texas with a wide array of plant life that consumes carbon dioxide and emits oxygen. Only a few hundred troops had been sent so far.

The country's satellite monitoring agency has recorded more than 41,000 fires in the Amazon region so far this year -- with more than half of those coming this month alone. Experts say most of the fires are set by farmers or ranchers clearing existing farmland. But the same monitoring agency has reported a sharp increase in deforestation this year as well.

Brazil's federal police agency announced Sunday it would investigate reports that farmers in the state of Para, one of the states most affected by the blazes, had called for "a day of fire" to ignite fires Aug. 10.

Local news media said the group organized over the social media application WhatsApp to show support for Bolsonaro's efforts to loosen environmental regulations.

Justice Minister Sergio Moro, who oversees the police, said on Twitter that Bolsonaro "asked for a rigorous investigation" and said "the criminal fires will be severely punished."

Critics have accused Bolsonaro's pro-development policies of encouraging farmers and ranchers to increase efforts to strip away the forest, though the president has issued repeated pledges recently to protect the area, and backed that up by sending in soldiers and other federal forces.

Merkel noted that Bolsonaro is putting "significant forces" into the effort to save the rain forest.

But Bolsonaro has had a tense relationship with foreign governments -- including Germany's -- and non-governmental groups that he accuses of meddling in his country's management of the Amazon.

Macron's office on Friday said the French president "can only conclude that President Bolsonaro lied to him" about his environmental commitments.

Asked if he would speak with Macron, Bolsonaro said Saturday, "If he calls me, I will answer. I am being extremely well-mannered with him even though he called me a liar."

Information for this article was contributed by Frances D'Emilio, Sylvie Corbet, Lori Hinnant and Geir Moulson of The Associated Press.

A Section on 08/26/2019

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