“Forest fires are a cultural thing”

In a meeting with the press, president Bolsonaro was asked if he talked to the  Minister of  the Environment about the increase in Amazon deforestation in 2019 as reported by INPE a few days earlier. ‘You are not going to put an end to deforestation or to the fires, it’s a cultural thing. I saw Marina Silva criticising the day before yesterday. In her time, we had the highest level of illicit in the Amazon region,” declared the president. Marina Silva was Minister of the Environment between 2003 and 2008; in a tweet on November 18th, she said: “The President has no commitment to the truth. As Minister of the Environment, I implemented a Plan to Prevent and Control deforestation in the Amazon that reduced the deforestation rate in 80% from 2004-2012”.