Wildfires in the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil have ignited a firestorm on social media, with President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday suggesting green groups started the blazes.

Images of fires purportedly devouring sections of the world's largest rainforest have gone viral on Twitter. #PrayforAmazonas is the top trending hashtag in the world on Wednesday, with more than 249,000 tweets.

"No matter how successful we are, if our Earth dies, we all die," posted one Twitter user.

Another wrote: "Send your prayers to the Amazon and to the planet, we will need it."

Some of the images, however, showed fires in the Amazon dating as far back as 1989 or even in other countries such as the United States or India, AFP's fact-check service found.

Official figures show nearly 73,000 forest fires were recorded in Brazil in the first eight months of the year -- the highest number for any year since 2013. Most were in the Amazon.

That compares with 39,759 in all of 2018, according to the embattled National Institute for Space Research (INPE), which has been in Bolsonaro's cross-hairs since it released data showing a surge in deforestation in recent months.

The head of INPE, the agency tasked with monitoring forest clearing, was sacked over the figures.

While it was not possible Wednesday to measure the size of the area affected by fires, thick smoke in recent days has blanketed several cities, including Sao Paulo, and caused a commercial flight to be diverted.

Forest fires tend to intensify during the dry season, which usually ends in late October or early November, as land is cleared to make way for crops or grazing.

But the WWF has blamed this year's sharp increase on accelerating deforestation in the Amazon, which is seen as crucial to keeping climate change in check.

"Historically, in this region, the use of fire is directly linked to deforestation as it is one of the techniques for tree clearing," WWF said in a statement.

Bolsonaro hit back Wednesday, saying "criminal action by those NGOs, to call attention against me, against the Brazilian government" following funding cuts may be the reason for the forest fires.

"This is the war that we are facing," Bolsonaro told reporters.

"The fires were lit in strategic places. All the indications suggest they went there to film and start fires. That's what I feel."

- Deforestation under scrutiny -

Bolsonaro's comments come as Brazil hosts a UN regional meeting on climate change in the northeastern city of Salvador ahead of December's summit in Chile.

The 25th UN Conference on Climate Change (COP25) was originally planned for Brazil, but the country pulled out, citing impossible objectives.

Activists held a protest in the city where they denounced Bolsonaro's latest accusation as "absurd".

"The fires are the consequence of a policy of environmental devastation, of support for agribusiness, of increasing pastures," Camila Veiga of the Brazilian Association of NGOs told AFP.

Speaking on the sidelines of the week-long workshop, Environment Minister Ricardo Salles defended the government's efforts to prevent illegal deforestation.

"All the rules on illegal deforestation have been upheld, all strategies have continued to be enforced," Salles said.

"Unfortunately both the states and the federal government suffer because of the economic crisis, budget cuts, which hinders... enforcement operations."

The forest fires have fueled criticism of Bolsonaro's anti-environmentrhetoric, which activists blame for emboldening loggers, miners and farmers in the Amazon.

Salvador mayor Antonio Carlos Magalhaes told AFP that, if necessary, "political forces" in Brazil would work "to block any attempt at radical or extreme decisions" on the environment by Bolsonaro's government.

"Our country is concerned about the environment, our country is concerned with the preservation of its natural heritage, our country does not want to regress on this agenda, it wants to move forward," Magalhaes said.

Norway joined Germany on Thursday in halting Amazon protection subsidies, accusing Brazil of turning its back on the fight against deforestation.

Worsening relations between Brazil and Europe has worried the powerful agriculture sector, which fears a backlash from its key markets.

Five things to know about the Amazon
Salvador, Brazil (AFP) Aug 21, 2019 - The Amazon is the largest tropical forest in the world, covering 5.5 million square kilometers (2.1 million square miles), an ecological treasure threatened by escalating deforestation and forest fires.

- Sanctuary of biodiversity -

The Amazon basin, spanning 7.4 million square kilometers, covers nearly 40 percent of Latin America and is spread across nine countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. About 60 percent of it is in Brazil.

The Amazon forest, of which 2.1 million sq km are protected zones, is home to a biodiversity sanctuary that is unique in the world.

A quarter of the Earth's species are found there, namely 30,000 types of plants, 2,500 fish, 1,500 birds, 500 mammals, 550 reptiles and 2.5 million insects, according to the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO).

In the past 20 years, 2,200 new species of plants and vertebrates have been discovered there.

- 'Lungs of the earth' -

The Amazon contains a third of the world's primary forests and, via the Amazon River and its tributaries, provides 20 percent of the Earth's unfrozen fresh water.

The Amazon is the world's largest river and -- by some accounts since new research was carried out in 2007 -- the longest, running for up to 6,900 kilometers (4,287 miles).

The forest acts as a carbon sink, absorbing more CO2 than it emits while releasing oxygen, and stocking 90 to 140 billion tonnes of CO2, which helps regulate worldwide global warming, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

But deforestation is reducing this capacity for absorbing CO2.

- 420 tribes -

The Amazon has been inhabited for at least 11,000 years and today counts 34 million people, of whom two-thirds live in cities.

Nearly three million are Indians who are members of some 420 different tribes, around 60 of which live in total isolation, according to ACTO. The Amazon's Indians speak 86 languages and 650 dialects.

The largest Amazon tribe is the Tikuna, counting some 40,000 members who live in Brazil, Peru and Colombia, according to Survival International.

Brazilian Indian chief from the Kayapo tribe, Raoni Metuktire, is the leading campaigner in the campaign against deforestation in the Amazon and has traveled the world for three decades calling for the preservation of the forest and its indigenous population.

- Manaus, the Amazon 'capital' -

Manaus is the capital of Amazonas state, the largest in Brazil and spanning 1.5 million km2.

Founded by the Portuguese in 1669 on the banks of the Rio Negro, near its confluence with the Amazon River, Manaus has a population of 1.8 million.

After fast expansion at the end of the 19th century due to the rubber trade, the city went into major decline until the creation of a free trade zone in 1967.

Manaus now lives mainly off its industrial sector, importing spare parts and exporting end products, notably electronic equipment.

After Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Manaus is Brazil's third main economic hub.

- Massive deforestation -

Almost 20 percent of the Amazon forest has disappeared in the last half-century, according to the WWF, and this is accelerating.

Since Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro took power in at the start of 2019, the rate of deforestation by July was nearly four times higher than a year earlier, according to a satellite system known as DETER, which is used by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE).

According to the INPE, which tracks clear-cutting of the rainforest, around 2,254 km2 of the Amazon forest were cleared in July, a spike of 278 percent from a year ago.

The main causes of deforestation are soya and livestock farming, the construction of hydroelectric dams and roads, the mining industry and forest fires.

As well as its rich biodiversity, the Amazon is rich in minerals resources including gold, copper, tantalum, iron ore, nickel and manganese.

Sections of the forest are now being devoured by fires.

INPE figures show nearly 73,000 forest fires were recorded in Brazil between January and August -- the highest number for any year since 2013. Most of them were in the Amazon.

That compares with 39,759 in all of 2018.

Related Links
Forest and Wild Fires - News, Science and Technology

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