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Fire-setting Amazon Farmers Not 'Villains,' Just Poor, Politicians Say

Reuters

   HUMAITA, BRAZIL - Farmers living along the Trans-Amazonian Highway,
   near Humaita, a rural town deep in the Amazon, would rather not use
   fire to clear forest land so they can grow crops and raise cattle,
   their local representatives say.

   But without the heavy equipment they would need to remove vegetation,
   the mainly poor farmers have little choice other than burning it, in
   order to feed their families - one reason this year's fires have been
   so numerous, local officials say.

   "The number of fires has increased," Humaita councilman Antonio Carlos
   Almeida told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. But people living near the
   town "need to farm to survive," so have few options, he said.

   It is a commonly held view in this town of 55,000 in Brazil's
   northwestern Amazonas state - one of the areas most affected by
   rainforest fires and smoke this year.

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