FILE PHOTO: An aerial view of a deforested plot of the Amazon at the Bom Futuro National Forest in Porto Velho, Rondonia State, Brazil, September 3, 2015. REUTERS/Nacho Doce/File Photo
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s government does not expect an international boycott of Brazilian products due to increasing deforestation in the Amazon rainforest basin, presidential spokesman General Otavio Rego Barros said on Wednesday.
The government will launch a campaign to defend Brazilian exports, he told reporters. Deforestation in the rainforest surged 67% in the first seven months of the year, according to Brazil’s space research agency, though the government has attacked the data as misleading and harmful to the national interest.
Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Richard Chang