AMAZON FIRES

That this House notes with deep concern the over 90,000 fires recorded in Brazil so far this year, with burning detected inside indigenous lands and nature reserves; notes that the Amazon rainforest is home to over 20 million people including 1 million indigenous people, 10 per cent of the Earth's biodiversity and the world's largest carbon sink; understands fires have been set deliberately; is concerned that those fires follow President Jair Bolsonaro's weakening of Brazil’s environment agency and a desire to open up more of the Amazon for mining, logging and farming; further notes warnings from scientists that loss of tree cover in the Amazon rainforest could tip the region towards a drier ecosystem, storing vastly less carbon; notes that the Government wants to pursue a closer trading relationship with Brazil; supports proposals from Ireland and France to veto the EU-Mercosur trade deal unless Brazil honours its environmental commitments; further supports calls from indigenous people in Brazil for a boycott of goods involved in the burning and destruction of indigenous lands; urges the Government to oppose the EU-Mercosur trade deal which will only intensify the exploitation of the Amazon region, to suspend on-going trade talks and its £20 million trade facilitation programme with Brazil until it protects the Amazon and its people; and to make any future trade deals with Brazil and other countries contingent on progress under the Paris Agreement and the enforcement of high environmental standards and human rights.