- The main thing that's causing fires is deforestation.
Would you agree with that?
- Deforestation is important aspect of the fires,
but it's not the only one.
- [Narrator] As fires continue to burn
in Brazil's rainforest, Ricardo Salles,
Brazil's environment minister, says he's in the U.S.
to tell his government's side of the story.
- It's a communication challenge, I think.
- According to France's Emmanuel Macron,
it's an international crisis.
Canada's prime minister agrees,
and Finland is urging EU countries
to stop importing beef and soybeans from Brazil.
They point to Brazil's mismanagement of a rainforest
they consider vital to all humanity,
and the fires, more than 43,000 from January
through August of this year,
according to Brazil's space agency, as exhibit A.
Salles, a lawyer by training, took office in January
under conservative president Jair Bolsonaro.
In his first trip to the U.S.
as minister of the environment,
Salles confirmed the Brazilian president
plans to address the United Nations General Assembly.
He says Bolsonaro wants to talk
about the country's environmental policies.
What's the message he's gonna be bringing?
- Brazil is an example of a sustainable country,
as opposed to the narrative that was created
that they are dismantling the environmental structure.
- But why are the fires at the highest level since 2010?
- With this year's you'll see
that it's hotter, it's drier.
- The drought has been milder this year.
- What happened is that the distribution of the rain
during the period this year was much more concentrated
than the past three years,
- [Jason] Rainforest fires typically burn land
that has been either fully or partially deforested.
The rate of forest loss in Brazil's Amazon
started to decline around 2005.
- In 2012 on, it became going up again.
- [Jason] Salles says final deforestation statistics
for this year won't be released until November.
But 70% more forest has been cleared this year
than the year prior.
This is according to your own government's statistics.
So it's happening.
- The important thing is where is comes from.
It comes from illegal mining, it comes from
the illegal use of the forest for the wood removal,
and also inappropriate agriculture use.
- [Jason] Is the message that you're bringing
that deforestation is not as bad as it appears?
- [Salles] We're saying that illegal deforestation
must be fight against it.
We already doing, actually.
- [Jason] What constitutes legal deforestation
is a complex matter.
Property owners in Brazil's Amazon are legally entitled
to deforest some of their land.
But according to Brazilian environmental lawyers,
wildcat miners, loggers and ranchers
often bribe officials to get phony land titles.
Salles says legal land owners should be paid
to preserve the forest and not cut and clear their land.
- The fact is that, in order to avoid
the increase of areas for the use of agriculture,
we need to provide to the owners an alternative
in terms of economic use of the property.
And that's why we're looking for the payment
for environmental services,
which is a rate that we remunerate those owners.
- That's expensive.
I mean, you're going through budget cuts right now.
You've cut your budget overall by about 25%.
- It's not necessarily coming from the budget.
It can come from international governments,
leagues that are asking Brazil not to produce
or not to increase the areas of plantation.
It's a tool that can be used for ...
turn speeches into actions.
- Salles says he's announcing a bio-economic summit
which will take place in November.
He says Brazil will invite representatives
from international companies to discuss
preservation of the Brazilian Amazon
and economic development there.
Boycotts from companies like H&M,
how worried are you about these effecting your economy?
- First, I don't think it's fair,
because Brazil is doing well.
We have a legal framework which is an example to the world,
the forestry code, the maintenance of the appropriate
sustainable production and everything.
- But these companies clearly aren't convinced.
- We are here to show them that they are not convinced
based on misinformation.
- Many people think your country
has a major role to play in preventing climate change,
because you've got 60% of the Amazon rainforest.
This is the world's most bio-diverse forest.
And they're concerned that, if it continues to be destroyed
at the rate that it is right now,
that that could make climate change worse.
Does that concern you?
I mean, does climate change keep you up at night?
- No, it's an important issue.
- [Jason] It's on issue on the minds of many world leaders,
as Salles, as he says, tries to reshape the narrative.