RIO DE JANEIRO—Hours after leaders of some of the world’s wealthiest countries pledged more than $22 million (U.S.) to help combat fires in the Amazon rainforest, Brazil’s government angrily rejected the offer, in effect telling the other nations to mind their own business — only to later lay out potential terms for the aid’s acceptance. 

President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil expressed his ire in a series of Twitter posts Monday, extending his verbal feud with President Emmanuel Macron of France, who had announced the aid package at the Group of Seven summit. 

But early the next day, Bolsonaro offered possible terms for its acceptance.  If Macron withdrew what he called personal insults and insinuations that Brazil does not have sovereignty over the Amazon, he said, he would reconsider. 

“He will have to withdraw his words, and then we can talk,” Bolsonaro said. 

For Bolsonaro, who has governed as a far-right populist stoking nationalist sentiment, a defiant rebuff plays well to his base.  But an outright rejection might also undermine the nation’s efforts to control the fires, erode Bolsonaro’s plummeting overall popularity, and inflict other losses to international investment, trade and aid. 

More than 26,000 forest fires have been recorded in the Amazon rainforest this month, the highest number in a decade, setting off outrage and calls for more protections.  The forests absorb a significant share of the planet’s climate-warming carbon dioxide, are home to Indigenous peoples and are a vital habitat for endangered species. 

Bolsonaro, who had suggested that Macron’s real motive was to shield France’s agriculture from Brazilian competition, had tweeted Monday that the president “disguises his intentions behind the idea of an ‘alliance’ of the G7 countries to ‘save’ the Amazon, as if we were a colony or a no-man’s land.” 

U.S. President Donald Trump praised Bolsonaro on Tuesday, posting on Twitter, “He is working very hard on the Amazon fires and in all respects doing a great job for the people of Brazil — Not easy.  He and his country have the full and complete support of the USA!” 

But the rancour over the G7 donation spilled into the United Nations, which is planning a climate summit next month during its annual General Assembly.  Asked at a news briefing about Brazil’s apparent refusal to accept the money, Luis Alfonso de Alba, a Mexican diplomat who is the secretary-general’s special envoy for the climate summit, sought to avoid taking sides. 

“I welcome the willingness to support the efforts” to combat the Amazon fires, de Alba said.  At the same time, he said, “the key for us is to work with the government of Brazil.”  Such contributions, he said, “have always been done in an apolitical way.” 

Bolsonaro is facing his own problems at home, where approval of his government has plummeted: 39.5 per cent of Brazilians evaluate it as bad or terrible, up from 19 per cent in February, according to a poll by MDA/CNT, which conducted the survey between Aug. 22-25. 

Approval of the president’s personal performance has also dropped substantially, according to the same poll, with 53.7 per cent of Brazilians evaluating it as bad or terrible, up from 28.2 per cent in February. 

Despite the widespread attention to the fires in the Amazon, the Bolsonaro administration was rated worst in its management of the health sector.  The environment was rated second worst. 

Bolsonaro has been widely criticized by environmentalists for calls to open up protected parts of the Amazon rainforest to logging, farming, mining and other development, which many say has caused further exploitation of the region.  The illegally set fires and resulting deforestation, critics say, are being driven by his policies. 

On Tuesday, Bolsonaro and members of his Cabinet met with governors from all nine states that make up Brazil’s Amazon region to discuss the fire and offers of aid. 

Some governors made clear they supported Bolsonaro’s drive to develop the Amazon and complained that too much of their states’ territories were blocked off as Indigenous and environmental reserves, hampering their growth. 

Others were more concerned with securing the help offered by the G7 countries and with bolstering diplomacy. 

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“We need support, international support, institutional support from the federal government,” said Wilson Lima, governor of Amazonas state. “ All help is welcome.” 

During the meeting, Bolsonaro blamed the international crisis in which he finds himself on media outlets that reported on the fire, on those who oppose him for not wanting to protect more Indigenous land, and on France, whose president Bolsonaro believes has overreacted to the problem to score points at home. 

These international demonstrations of concern are, in reality, attempts to infringe on Brazil’s rights over its own territory, he said. 

“What they want is our sovereignty,” he said about his international critics. “ We have to unite to preserve what is ours and guarantee our sovereignty.” 

Accepting international help might come with “a price,” Bolsonaro warned, including the protection of other lands. “ And this will take us to a destiny we already know: Brazil’s insolvency,” he added. 

But as much as Brazil’s sovereignty must be respected, the country is not in a position to reject help, said Elizabeth Uema, a representative of an association of public servants who work in Brazil’s environmental agencies.  Brazil also cut 25 per cent of the budget for the main environmental agency, Ibama, this year. 

“We need all the help we can get,” Uema said. “ But, of course, the terms need to be negotiated.” 

Some Brazilians are growing concerned about economic losses from the crisis.  Norway and Germany have suspended contributions to the Amazon Fund, which bankrolls much of the equipment used in environmental law enforcement, over what they see as Brazil’s interference in the effort. 

Macron has threatened to block a major European trade deal with four South American nations, including Brazil, which was just completed but has not been ratified.  And Swedish and Norwegian pension funds have started investigating whether international companies with investments in the Amazon were taking enough action to save the rainforest. 

Last Friday, Blairo Maggi, a former agriculture minister and the main shareholder at Amaggi, one of Brazil’s main grain trading groups, told a local radio station that he was worried the crisis could lead to a boycott of the country’s exports. 

“We are not an isolated island,“ he said. “ We need to pay attention to the path the world is taking.” 

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