Environment

• Friday, August 30th 2019 - 09:02 UTC

  Bolsonaro bans burning forests for 60 days, and insists Macron must apologize for calling him a liar

  

  Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro signed a decree to ban burning throughout the country for two months, government sources said, as the authorities scramble to defuse the Amazon fires which have triggered a global outcry.

• Thursday, August 29th 2019 - 09:45 UTC

  Bolsonaro will join with other Amazon countries to set a common policy to protect the rainforest

  

  Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Wednesday he would meet with other South American countries to set common policy for defending the Amazon rain forest, while his foreign minister said Brazil should be seen as an environmental hero.

• Thursday, August 29th 2019 - 09:42 UTC

  Bolivia admits fires have destroyed 1.2m hectares of forest; ecologists demand an end to bill promoting pastures

  

  Fires have destroyed 1.2 million hectares of forest and grasslands in Bolivia this year, the government said on Wednesday, though environmentalists claim the true figure is much greater.

• Thursday, August 29th 2019 - 08:10 UTC

  French mayors propose pesticide-free buffer zones around residential areas

  

  France is looking at introducing pesticide-free buffer zones around housing areas after several local mayors defied the government by banning weed killers such as glyphosate in their towns.

• Wednesday, August 28th 2019 - 10:04 UTC

  Norwegian investment funds warn global agricultural companies linked to Amazon deforestation

  

  The two most sizeable investors in Norway have told global companies to make sure they are not contributing to environmental destruction in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil.

• Wednesday, August 28th 2019 - 09:58 UTC

  Canada will continue trade negotiations with Mercosur, despite the current Amazon policy of Brazil

  

  Canada will continue its trade negotiations with Mercosur, the South American trading bloc that includes Brazil, despite demands to call a halt to the talks until more action is taken to protect the Amazon rainforest.

• Wednesday, August 28th 2019 - 09:56 UTC

  Insufficient rainfall forecasted as Brazil's Amazon dry season end approaches

  

  Weak rainfall is unlikely to extinguish a record number of fires raging in Brazil's Amazon anytime soon, with pockets of precipitation through to Sept 10 expected to bring only isolated relief, according to weather data and two experts.

• Wednesday, August 28th 2019 - 09:55 UTC

  Amazon fires a “tipping point” for the health of rainforests, warns tropical forests organization

  

  The fires tearing through the Amazon represent a “tipping point” for the health of the rainforest, the head of a top global forestry management body said on Wednesday, urging the world to do more to save the trees.

• Wednesday, August 28th 2019 - 09:50 UTC

  Peru and Colombia propose an emergency Amazon basin summit

  

  Peru and Colombia proposed on Tuesday an emergency Amazon summit for countries in the region in order to coordinate a strategy to protect the vast rainforest currently blighted by numerous fires. The Amazon is known as the “planet's lungs” but is suffering from its worst outbreak of fires in years, which has sparked a global outcry.

• Wednesday, August 28th 2019 - 09:34 UTC

  Bolivian president Morales welcomes the G7 tiny contribution to preserve the Amazon rainforest

  

  Bolivia's president Evo Morales gave a half-hearted welcome on Tuesday to a G7 pledge of US$20 million to fight the Amazon wildfires, describing it as “tiny.” An underwhelmed Morales said the aid from the most industrialized countries was part of the world's “obligation” to preserve the Amazon rainforest.