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Bolsonaro praised Brazilian agribusiness and truckers – two key support groups.
“The man in the field never stopped,” he said, blaming disinformation for the deluge of bad news about fires in the Amazon and Pantanal wetlands region.
“We are victims of one of the most brutal disinformation campaigns on the Amazon and Pantanal,” he said. “We are leaders of tropical forest conservation.”
In fact, the Pantanal, the world’s largest wetland, is facing the greatest devastation in its history. The area burned this year is equivalent to the size of the State of Israel — 3 million hectares or 20% of the entire biome. Bolsonaro blamed fires on backwoodsmen and indigenous. But extensive research from scientists and environmental groups, together with media reports, including in the Guardian, have shown that in many cases, Amazon fires are caused by farmers clearing land for pasture and, increasingly, clearing virgin forest.
The Amazon has seen more fires this year than the whole of 2019, according to NASA data, Mongabay reports. In Brazil, Federal Police are investigating four farms for fires in the Pantanal.
Bolsonaro pre-recorded his speech last Friday, before he flew to Mato Grosso state and his plane was forced to abort its landing because of smoke from fires.
He is talking about Covid-19. “First of all, I want to lament every death that happened,” Bolsonaro said. That is a different tone to his comments earlier during the pandemic when asked about deaths, he replied with “so what?” and “I’m not a gravedigger.”
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