RIO DE JANEIRO — Hundreds of government workers on the front lines of enforcing Brazil’s environmental laws signed an open letter warning that their work has been hampered by President Jair Bolsonaro, contributing to a rise in deforestation and the fires sweeping through the Amazon.



The letter was issued amid a global debate over the fate of the Amazon as thousands of fires are raging across the world’s largest rainforest. The workers said in their letter, signed over the last two days, that Brazil’s environmental protection system could “collapse” if nothing changes.

Employees of the country’s main environmental agency, Ibama, said that their mission had been hobbled in recent years as a result of budget cuts, staff reductions in remote areas, political interference and a weakening of environmental regulations.

“There is no way to separate those factors and the significant rise in deforestation and fires,” they wrote in the letter.