Fires burn near a deforested section of the Amazon basin in the state of Maranhão, Brazil, in 2014. The Amazon is the world’s largest rainforest and a vital provider of oxygen and carbon sequestration (the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide.) Forest fires are common in the Brazilian Amazon during the dry season, which runs from July to October, and while some fires are caused by naturally occurring events many are believed to have been started by farmers and loggers clearing land for crops or grazing. Official figures from the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) show more than 87,000 forest fires were recorded in Brazil in the first eight months of the year, compared with 49,000 in the same period in 2018. Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is a lucrative business largely driven by criminal networks, according to a report by Human Rights Watch. Following international outcry at the end of August 2019, the Brazilian government began to take measures ...