Amazon Rainforest Protection Must Take Priority Over Trade Deals

That the Parliament expresses grave concern at the scale of destruction in the Amazon region; notes reports of an 85% increase in fires in 2019, according to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE); considers that much of the destruction is widely acknowledged to be the result of deliberate actions by the beef industry, which uses fire to illegally deforest land; recognises the reported impact that these actions have on indigenous people, who frequently report that fires are set with the intention of clearing them from their lands; condemns Brazil’s President Bolsonaro, who it believes has a track record of promoting climate deniers and favouring economic development at the expense of environmental protection and human rights, and has suggested, without any evidence, that environmental NGOs are themselves responsible for setting fires; recognises that the Amazon rainforest is critically important in terms of climate change, biodiversity and as a home to an estimated one million indigenous people, and calls on the UK and all EU member states to refuse to ratify the EU-Mercosur trade deal, which it considers represents a huge benefit to Brazil’s beef industry, unless Brazil’s government takes immediate action to halt the destruction, and to make protection of the Amazon rainforest a precondition of any further dialogue on trade with Brazil or the Mercosur bloc.