Brazil's burning ban takes effect as Amazon fires rage

A 60-day ban on burning in Brazil takes effect Thursday after a global outcry over fires raging in the Amazon and data showing hundreds of new blazes in the rainforest.

The decree issued by President Jair Bolsonaro comes after escalating international pressure over the worst fires in the Amazon in years that have ignited a potentially damaging diplomatic spat between Brazil and Europe.

Thousands of troops and firefighters have been deployed since the weekend to combat the fires, along with two C-130 Hercules and other aircraft that are dumping water over the hardest hit areas in the country's north.

More than 1,600 new fires were ignited between Tuesday and Wednesday, taking this year's total to almost 85,000 -- the highest number since 2010, official data shows.

More than half of them are in the vast Amazon basin.

The new figures comes as UN chief Antonio Guterres on Thursday mooted a meeting of key countries to drum up support to tackle the fires that have also devastated swaths of Bolivia.

"We are strongly appealing for the mobilisation of resources and we have been in contact with countries to see whether, during the high level session of the General Assembly, there could be a meeting devoted to the mobilization of support to the Amazon," Guterres told reporters.

International offers of help for combatting the fires is a hot-button issue in Brazil, with Bolsonaro and others insisting on the country's sovereign rights over the Amazon.

Bolsonaro on Wednesday accused France and Germany of "buying" Brazil's sovereignty after the G7 offered USD 20 million in Amazon fire aid.

Vice President Hamilton Mourao -- widely considered to be a moderate voice in Bolsonaro's government -- also weighed in publicly for the first time on Wednesday, insisting in an opinion piece that "our Amazon will continue to be Brazilian."
"There's insufficient supervision."