Bolsonaro objects to Biden’s remarks about Amazon

President Jair Bolsonaro today (Sep. 30) opposed the statements made by US presidential hopeful Joe Biden on the deforestation of the Amazon and said the government is taking “unprecedented measures” to protect the forest. “The greed of some countries for the Amazon is a reality. However, the utterance by someone running to rule his country clearly indicates a foregoing of a cordial and fruitful relations,” Bolsonaro wrote on his social media.

The first debate between Biden, seeking to win the election on November 3, and President Trump took place on Tuesday evening (30). Biden accused Trump of not using his influence to help protect nature, and pledged, if elected, to attempt to gather other countries to pay Brazil $20 billion for forest conservation, under threat of economic sanctions. The standing forest, he said, is key to absorbing greenhouse effect gases.

In Bolsonaro’s view, the statement was gratuitous and disastrous, as it comes after he, as a head of state, “fully reopened [Brazil’s] diplomacy with the US.” “US cooperation is welcome, including sustainable investment projects creating dignified employment for the Amazon people, as I have said in talks with President Trump,” he wrote.

The Brazilian president also mentioned that Brazil’s sovereignty over the Amazon is nonnegotiable.