"RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro again criticized a state agency that monitors the Amazon, saying Sunday that its latest report on increased deforestation damages Brazil’s reputation amid what he says is an “environmental psychosis” overseas about environmental protection in South America’s biggest nation.
The INPE agency says preliminary satellite data indicate more than 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of forest were lost during the first half of July, an increase of 68% from the loss in the same period last year.
Bolsonaro said the agency should coordinate such reports with higher officials in the administration, which supports loosening regulations on use of the Amazon. “But to publish them in one simple way, as it was done, leaves Brazil in a complicated situation,” the far-right president told the G1 news site."
Marcelo Silva De Sousa reports for the Associated Press July 21, 2019.
