I just wrote a post about it (inobio-manera.fcav.unesp.br/index.php/2019/08/28/...). I am including it here with more details. Hope it helps!
I am originally from the Amazon rainforest region (I grew up in the state of Rondônia). Brazilians strongly believe we should preserve the forest but, at the same time, bring economic development.
Before I dive-in into this discussion, I would like to clarify some common misconceptions:
a) I agree with Dallas Weaver, most of the O2 produced by the Amazon rainforest is consumed by the forest itself, as demonstrated by previous research (https://www.nature.com/articles/35002062, https://www.nature.com/articles/nature12957). The liquid amount of O2 production from the Amazon rainforestis almost zero. We should revise the common misconception that the Amazon is the lung of the world. The main source of global liquid O2 are the blue algae in the ocean, which might be strongly affected by the radioactive waste (mostly from Nuclear Power Plants) dumped in the oceans by developed countries in the period from 1946 to 1993 (http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2017/ph241/jones-a2/).
b) I agree with Olger Linares. Most developed countries, which had almost completely deforested their territory, focus on slowing down developing countries. Instead of taking more impactful initiatives, such as reforesting their territory or fostering sustainable development, they invest on promoting farming in their countries and on fighting against any development of the developing countries. For instance, see the campaign "Farms here, forest there" (http://assets.usw.org/our-union/pulp-paper-forestry/farms-here-forests-there-report-5-26-10.pdf) supported by the American National Farmers Union.
c) As I discuss below, the Federal Government has strict laws regarding the protection of the ALL Brazilian forests. Burning is illegal in Brazil since 1998 (law 9.605/1998). In addition, President Jair Bolsonaro is doing everything under his power to protect the forest, even sending military forces to fight against illegal burning of the forest and to fight wildfires. This is the first year of his term and he is the ONLY president who demonstrated attitude towards sustainable developing the Amazon region and in protecting the forest. One curious fact is that several NGOs are seen in the Amazon rainforest region. In this region, people live sustainable with a strong connection with the forest. Curious enough is why we see so much NGOs in such an region with so much natural richness and not in the poorest Northeastern parts of Brazil. The Northeastern is marked by strong droughts but with rich underground water vessels. The potential impact of the NGOs on reducing inequality and improving life quality in the Northeastern is huge.
d) What we see are wildfires or small illegal fires. In total, the burning was estimated to be around 200 km2 (a 0.0036% of the total 5,500,000 km2 of Amazon rainforest region; brasil.elpais.com/brasil/2019/08/23/politica/..., en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_rainforest).
The huge increase in fire we see in the media is on the number of fires, not in the burned area. In comparison, in 2018, the wildfire in California (which accounted for 21% of all territory burned in the United States; www.latimes.com/local/lanow/...) was ~40 times bigger (7664 km2; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_California_wildfires) and burned 5.74% of the California Forest (133,546 km2, roughly 2.4% of the size of the Amazon rainforest region; ucanr.edu/sites/forestry/California_forests).
Proportionally, the wildfires in California were 1,594 bigger than what we see now in the Amazon rainforest region. Comparatively, President Bolsonaro is sending an addition 43 thousand military people to protect the Amazon (www.poder360.com.br/brasil/...). The numbers never lie.
e) Not only President Bolsonaro wants to develop the Amazon, Brazilians want it as well. Differently from what we see in the news, Brazilians are and want to continue developing the region sustainably (something that would not sell as many news papers as saying that the President wants the forest down).
f) Mart Malakoff wrote a very biased comment, and I felt extremely offended by it. Brazilians (as everyone) deserve to be respected. First, he/she should revise his/her data on Brazilian scientific production-we do more than only Theoretical Physics (which is an important research field) and it was not one or another foreigner who were the most prominent Brazilian Scientist (among the list of prominent Brazilian Scientists, we find important Brazilian scientists in all fields of science, such as Carlos Chagas, Cesar Lattes, José Bassani, Baccari Jr., Santos Dumont, Roberto da Silva Gomes, Marcelo Gleiser, and Oswaldo Cruz). In addition, accordingly to Scimago Journal & Country Rank, Brazil ranks top 15th in the production of scientific papers (https://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php?order=it&ord=desc). Second, Brazil is raceless. In Brazil, neighborhoods are not distinguished by black, white, or latino neighborhoods, as happen in other countries. Third, soybean growth for biofuel (or oil) is not significant in the Amazon rainforest region but in other parts of the country. Please, revise your data on where our oil independence comes from. Forth, when the rate of homicide per year is calculate per 100,000 inhabitants, you will find out that Brazil is not at the top. You will find countries such as El Salvador and South Africa (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...). Brazil is, however, working towards reducing its homicide rate and, since President Bolsonaro inauguration, homicide rate was observed to decreased by 25-60% (g1.globo.com/monitor-da-violencia/noticia/2019/04/18/...)! It is worth mentioning that our high homicide rate are found in big cities and related to drug dealers. Brazil is a huge country, with an immense 16.885 km of border with 10 countries (including Venezuela; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borders_of_Brazil). Some of the countries we make border with are known by their drug production. Even though we constantly fight to protect our borders, drug smugglers end up finding their ways to the Consuming countries through Brazil, leading to a high violence index (paraphrasing the butterfly effect of the chaos theory: the use of an illegal substance overseas kills thousands over here).
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