Flouting Amazon-Fire Outrage, Brazil Allows for Sugar Expansion

Brazil has faced international outrage over fires in the Amazon. Rather than shrinking from the scrutiny, President Jair Bolsonaro decided to make yet another controversial move by allowing for the expansion of sugar farming in the planet’s biggest rainforest.

Bolsonaro annulled a 10-year-old regulation that had banned the expansion of sugar-cane planted in the Amazon as well as a wetland savanna called Pantanal and indigenous and reforested areas, according to a resolution published Wednesday in the country’s official gazette.

The move comes after backlash over the Amazon fires started flaring in August. Bolsonaro has dismissed the fires after pledges of ...