Jair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian president, has said he may accept the $22 million (£18 million) of aid offered by G7 countries to help combat forest fires in the Amazon, providing that French president Emmanuel Macron apologises for calling him a "liar". Mr Bolsonaro initially rejected the $22 million, showing concern that the offer of aid was a veiled attempt to undermine Brazil's sovereignty in the region. This sentiment is shared by farmers associations and regional governments, who fear that France is trying to sabotage Brazilian agribusiness. Mr Bolsonaro's chief of staff Onyx Lorenzoni was also dismissive of the aid, saying it would be better used to "reforest Europe". "Mr Macron can't even avoid a foreseeable fire in a church … what is he trying to teach our country?", Mr Lorenzoni said, referring to the blaze at the Notre Dame cathedral in April. G7 nations announced that $22 million would be made available to help combat the wave of forest fires which have been devastating the Amazon region since the beginning of August. Official statistics show that the number of fires in the Amazon has increased by over 83 per cent since 2018, reaching the highest level since 2012, when records were first collected. Last Friday, Mr Macron declared that Mr Bolsonaro had “lied to him” at the G20 conference in Osaka in June, when the Brazilian president promised to respect climate commitments. "First of all, Macron has to withdraw his insults. He called me a liar. Before we talk or accept anything from France ... he must withdraw these words then we can talk," Mr Bolsonaro told reporters in Brasilia. "First he withdraws, then offers (aid), then I will answer." The hostility shown by the Brazilian government toward Mr Macron is partly fuelled by a long-held nationalist fear that foreign interests intend to "steal" the Amazon from Brazil. The Amazon is ablaze in Brazil Much of this backlash was sparked by Mr Macron's first statement on the forest fires, in which he referred to the Amazon rainforest as "our house". On Monday, the French president spoke of the need to create an international statute to govern over the Amazon rainforest, which the Bolsonaro administration saw as a threat to Brazil's sovereignty. "There is a clear effort to extrapolate real environmental problems into a fabricated 'crisis', as a pretext to introduce external control mechanisms in the Amazon,” said Ernesto Araujo, Brazil's foreign minister. Mauro Mendes, governor of Brazil's leading grain-producing state Mato Grosso, said that Mr Macron's comments about the Amazon were intended to "create a negative climate for Brazil and support French producers". Race to save the rainforest | Mass deforestation in the Amazon Jair Bolsonaro was elected in 2018 thanks in part to the support of Brazil's huge agribusiness industry. Despite growing pressure from abroad, farmers’ associations have stuck by the far-right president. Wellington Andrade, the executive director of the Soy and Corn Farmers' Association in Mato Grosso (Aprosoja), agrees with Mr Bolsonaro's stance toward the forest fires, but warned that Brazilian producers run the risk of "facing trade barriers which are dressed up as environmental barriers". There have been about 75,000 fires in the Amazon this year alone, being largely blamed on loggers and farmers taking advantage of decreased environmental regulations in the region. While the number of fires has increased 83 per cent this year, the number of fines handed out by the national environmental protection agency has fallen 29.4 per cent. Preliminary data from satellites put in place to measure deforestation suggest Brazil has lost over 1,100 sq km of Amazon forest since the beginning of August. If confirmed, this would be the highest deforestation level for August ever recorded. Last week, Mr Bolsonaro sent military troops to the Amazonian states of Rondonia and Roraima, with firefighter planes being deployed to try and extinguish the flames.
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