- Title: Brazil's indigenous chief calls on leaders to save Amazon
- Date: 26th August 2019
- Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (FILE - MAY 16, 2019) (AGENCY POOL) FRENCH PRESIDENT, EMMANUEL MACRON, AND BRAZILIAN INDIGENOUS CHIEF AND ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST RAONI METUKTIRE POSING FOR PHOTOS VARIOUS OF MACRON POSING FOR PHOTOS AND SHAKING HANDS WITH RAONI AND OFFICIALS VARIOUS OF RAONI AND OFFICIALS POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS ON STAIRS OF ELYSEE RAONI AND OFFICIALS WALKING INTO PALACE
- Embargoed: 9th September 2019 20:41
- Keywords: Raoni G7 France meme Brazil Emmanuel Macron Jair Bolsonaro protest indigenous wildfires
- Location: BIDART AND PARIS, FRANCE
- City: BIDART AND PARIS, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Topics: G7,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA002ATUWCAV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: PLEASE NOTE: TRANSLATION WAS PROVIDED BY THE ORIGINATORS OF THE NEWS CONFERENCE. REUTERS WAS NOT ABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE TRANSLATION
Brazilian indigenous chief and environment activist Raoni Metuktire delivered a message to the G7 leaders meeting in Biarritz more urgently tackle the ongoing Amazon forest fires.
Wildfires raging in the Amazon rainforest have hit a record number this year, with more than 70,000 fires detected so far by Brazil's space research centre INPE, as concerns grow over right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro's environmental policy.
G7 host French President Emmanuel Macron shunted the Amazon fires to the top of the summit agenda after declaring them a global emergency.
Raoni called for the G7 leaders to put pressure on the Brazilian government to take measures to end the forest fires.
"We believe that the position of the Brazilian President Bolsonaro is inciting the producers to start fires, this type of criminal fire (arson) in the Amazon," he said. "It happens every year in the Amazon we haven't seen this type of fire before Bolsonaro, and we think that many mining companies and timber companies feel that Bolsonaro is supporting them in doing this."
Macron last week accused Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's government of not doing enough to protect the area and of lying about its environmental commitments.
Raoni lamented the fact that Bolsonaro would not meet him and said the Brazilian President's behaviour was immature.
G7 leaders earlier agreed to provide $20 million in aid to help stop the forest fires.
Raoni, whose age is unclear, first captured the world's attention in 1989 when he began campaigning to save his homeland with British rock star Sting.
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