Wildfires have raged for weeks in Brazil's Amazon, the world's largest tropical rainforest, which produces around 20-percent of the oxygen on Earth. Its protection is critical to the fight against climate change. But the Brazilian government says it doesn't have enough resources to combat the growing number of wildfires in the Amazon. Lucrecia Franco reports from Rio de Janerio.

Dramatic images captured in several Amazonian states this week, follow new data reported by Brazil's space research agency showing wildfires have hit record numbers. In a year that, authorities say, has seen relatively consistent and abundant rainfall, over seventy-two thousand fires have been detected - an eighty-four percent increase compared with the same period in 2018, and the highest number since the agency began tracking fires in 2013.

On Monday, smoke from the fires was so intense, it blackened the sky of Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo, 2,700 kilometers away. Critics blame President Jair Bolsonaro's pro-agriculture policies that, they say, have turned a blind eye to deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, especially by deliberate burning. But the president, offering no evidence, had a different take on the matter.

JAIR BOLSONARO BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT "The fires in the Amazon, from my understanding, could be intensified by NGOs who are losing money, with the intention to bring problems to Brazil."

In the northern city of Salvador which is hosting a UN regional meeting on climate change, hundreds of protesters took to the streets to voice their anger against Bolsonaro's comments.

CAMILA VEIGA PROTESTER "His speech is very irresponsible. He has to prove what he is saying that the NGOs are the ones setting the fires in the Amazon."

The figures and images showing the rainforest covered by smoke have shocked the world and triggered a global social media frenzy. Scientists warn that rampant deforestation may be pushing the Amazon to a 'point of no return'. Soon they say that the forest may no longer be able to generate its own rain to sustain its complex ecosystems, which absorb millions of tons of CO2 emissions, and that would be catastrophic.

LUCRECIA FRANCO RIO DE JANEIRO "While the Amazon burns, Bolsonaro insists, Brazil's economy will take off once the country has extracted its rainforest riches. Germany and Norway have already suspended donations to Brazil's Amazon Fund after a surge of deforestation and many fear an even wider backlash. Lucrecia Franco, CGTN, Rio de Janeiro."