The Amazon rainforest, that extends over 5.5 million square kilometers and covers much of northwestern Brazil extending into Colombia, Peru and other South American countries, is the world’s largest tropical rainforest, famed for its biodiversity. It is crisscrossed by thousands of rivers, including the powerful Amazon.

As of August 29, 2019, INPE ( The National Institute for Space and Research), reported more than 80,000 fires across all of Brazil, a 77% year-to-year increase for the same tracking period, with more than 40,000 in the "Brazil's Legal Amazon",which contains 60% of the Amazon.

It is estimated that over 906 thousand hectares (2.24×106 acres; 9,060 km2; 3,500 sq mi) of forest within the Amazon biome has been lost to fires in 2019. In addition to the impact on global climate, the fires created environmental concerns from the excess carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide emissions and the potential impact it could have on the biodiversity of the Amazon, and threats to indigenous tribes that live within the forest.

International leaders, and environmental non-government organizations (ENGOs) attributed this to Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro's pro-business policies that have encouraged deforestation. Initially ambivalent he rejected calls to take action but after increased pressure from the international community, he dispatched over 44,000 Brazilian troops, allocated funds to fight the fires, and signed a decree to prevent such fires for a sixty-day period.

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