The fires tearing through the Amazon represent a "tipping point" for the health of the rainforest, the head of a top global forestry management body said Wednesday, urging the world to do more to save the trees.

The situation in the Amazon is "very urgent," stressed Gerhard Dieterle, executive director of the International Tropical Timber Organisation, an intergovernmental agency group that promotes sustainable forestry use.

"This is something that might affect the integrity of the Amazon as a whole, because if the forest fires spread, the grasslands become more prone to forest fires," Dieterle told AFP on the sidelines of a conference on African development.

"Many experts fear it may be a tipping point" for the rainforest, as the latest figures show a total of more than 82,000 fires blazing in Brazil, even as military aircraft and troops help battle them.

More than half of the fires are in the massive Amazon basin.

Some of the blazes are down to natural causes, Dieterle said, but they are mostly started deliberately by farmers clearing land for agriculture.

"If tropical dense forests are affected by forest fires, they need many, many years to regroup. It will alter the climate, the local climate, the national climate and the regional climate. It will also have an influence on the global climate," said the forestry expert.

Asked about the G7's $20 million pledge to combat the flames, Dieterle said it was "a beginning but much more is needed."

"This is the national sovereignty of Brazil... if they ask for funding, I think the world might be willing to provide more resources," he said.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for President Jair Bolsonaro said Brazil would be prepared to accept foreign aid to fight the fires, provided they control the cash.

Earlier, Brazil had appeared to reject the G7 overtures during a war of words between Bolsonaro and French President Emmanuel Macron, who hosted the meeting of the global elite.

"Mr Macron must withdraw the insults he made against me," Bolsonaro told reporters in the capital Brasilia on Tuesday.

Dieterle made his comments on the sidelines of the TICAD conference on African development held in Yokohama near Tokyo.

Earlier he warned delegates that "deforestation and forest degradation continue at an alarming rate in many African countries."

Given the expected rise in African populations from 1.2 billion today to 4.4 billion by the end of the century, he also sounded the alarm bell over a lack of wood products for construction and cooking.

"In the same way we talk about food security, we need also to talk about 'wood security' and 'water security'. We must focus more on the role and use of productive forests before it is too late," Dieterle said.

Brazil's Bolsonaro open to foreign aid to fight Amazon fires
Porto Velho, Brazil (AFP) Aug 27, 2019 - Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro is willing to accept foreign aid for fighting fires devastating the Amazon rainforest, but only if the country controls the funds, his spokesman said Tuesday.

The announcement suggests Bolsonaro has dropped an earlier demand that French President Emmanuel Macron withdraw "insults" made against him before he would accept a G7 offer to help put out the fires in the world's largest rainforest.

"The Brazilian government through President Bolsonaro is open to receiving financial support from organizations and even countries," Otavio Rego Barros told reporters in the capital Brasilia, without referring specifically to the G7's offer.

"The essential point is that this money, on entering Brazil, will be under the control of the Brazilian people."

Bolsonaro has been involved in an escalating war of words with Macron over the worst fires to hit the Amazon in years -- blazes that have sparked a global outcry and threatened to torpedo a huge trade deal between the European Union and South American countries.

A top Brazilian official on Monday rejected the G7 countries' offer of $20 million to combat the fires devastating the forest in Brazil and Bolivia, saying Macron should take care of "his home and his colonies."

"Mr Macron must withdraw the insults he made against me," Bolsonaro told reporters in the capital Brasilia earlier Tuesday.

"To talk or accept anything from France, with the best possible intentions, he has to withdraw these words, and from there we can talk."

Macron and Bolsonaro have repeatedly locked horns in the past week, with the French leader accusing Bolsonaro of lying to him about his commitments on climate change and vowing to block the EU-Mercosur trade deal involving Brazil that took decades to negotiate.

- 'Extraordinarily rude' -

On Monday, Macron rebuked the "extraordinarily rude" Bolsonaro after the Brazilian leader personally expressed approval for a Facebook post implying that Brigitte Macron was not as attractive as his own first lady, Michelle Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro has hit back, accusing Macron of treating Brazil like "a colony or no-man's land."

The latest official figures show 1,659 new fires were started in Brazil between Sunday and Monday, taking the total this year to 82,285 -- the highest since at least 2013 -- even as military aircraft and troops help battle the blazes.

More than half of the fires are in the massive Amazon basin.

The governors of several states in the Amazon told Bolsonaro in a meeting Tuesday that international help was needed.

Their plea comes after Norway and Germany halted around $70 million in Amazon protection subsidies earlier this month.

Bolsonaro -- a climate-change skeptic -- has faced criticism at home over his delayed response to the fires, and thousands have protested in Brazil in recent days to denounce the destruction.

But US President Donald Trump tweeted that the Brazilian leader was "working very hard on the Amazon fires and in all respects doing a great job for the people of Brazil - Not easy."

In response, Bolsonaro replied: "We're fighting the wildfires with great success. Brazil is and will always be an international reference in sustainable development."

"The fake news campaign built against our sovereignty will not work. The US can always count on Brazil."

- 'Under control' -

In the hard-hit northwestern state of Rondonia, thick smoke has choked the capital Porto Velho in recent days as fires blacken swaths of the rainforest.

Defense Minister Fernando Azevedo e Silva on Monday said the fires were "under control."

"It has been exaggerated a little that the situation was out of control -- it wasn't," he said. "The situation isn't simple but it is under control."

Nearly 2,500 troops and 15 aircraft, including two C-130 Hercules, have been deployed, according to the defense ministry, which has published satellite data it says show a reduction in the number of fires in the nine states spanning the Amazon.

More than 43,000 troops were available to help put out fires, the government said previously.

Rain in some of the affected areas is also helping.

Experts say increased land clearing during the months-long dry season to make way for crops or grazing has aggravated the recurring problem this year.

Although about 60 percent of the Amazon is in Brazil, the vast forest also spreads over parts of eight other countries or territories, including the French overseas territory of Guiana on the continent's northeast coast.

Bolivia's leftist President Evo Morales on Tuesday gave a half-hearted welcome to the G7 aid pledge, which he described as "tiny."

Morales and his rival for the Bolivian presidency have suspended campaigning to deal with the voracious fires that the president said had destroyed 1.2 million hectares, or more than 4,000 square miles, of forest and grassland since May.

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Brazil's Bolsonaro authorizes army to help fight Amazon fires
Porto Velho, Brazil (AFP) Aug 25, 2019
Brazil on Sunday deployed two C-130 Hercules aircraft to douse fires devouring parts of the Amazon rainforest, as hundreds of new blazes flared up and thousands protested over the destruction. Heavy smoke covered the city of Porto Velho in the northwestern state of Rondonia where the defense ministry said the planes have started dumping thousands of liters of water, amid a global uproar over the worst fires in years. Swathes of the remote region bordering Bolivia have been scorched by the blazes ... read more