TheAltWorld Brazil Tells the World: The Amazon Rainforest Is Ours, Not Yours
Managing the world’s largest rainforest is a Brazilian affair and foreigners should stop meddling in the Amazon, President Jair Bolsonaro’s top security adviser said in an interview.
“I don’t accept this idea that the Amazon is world heritage, this is nonsense,” General Augusto Heleno Pereira said in an interview in Brasilia. “The Amazon is Brazilian, the heritage of Brazil and should be dealt with by Brazil for the benefit of Brazil.”
“There’s a totally unnecessary and nefarious foreign influence in the Amazon,” said Pereira. “NGOs hide strategic, economic and geopolitical interests.”
First Act
Bolsonaro took power in January with pledges to ease regulations, and has argued that pressure from pro-environment and pro-indigenous rights groups are hindering farmers and the mining industry. He has said that too many businesses have been unjustly penalized for breaking rules that have undercut commercial activity.
This month, eight former Brazilian environment ministers warned in an open letter that Bolsonaro is dismantling environmental protections and hurting the country’s image abroad. Current Environment Minister Ricardo Salles responded by saying his office has maintained its autonomy and that NGOs are the ones hurting Brazil’s reputation.
“We have the capacity to carry out sustainable development in the Amazon without harming the rest of the world,” Pereira said. “Now I can’t accept the rest of the world giving lessons on the Amazon.”
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