Not overly worried about the Amazon: Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro. Credit:AP

Sao Paulo: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro shrugged off a government report that deforestation reached an 11-year high on his watch, saying on Wednesday that he expects the destruction of the world's largest tropical rainforest to continue.

"Deforestation and fires will never end," the pro-development President told reporters in Brasilia. "It's cultural."

The comments were quickly condemned by environmentalists, who fear that the Amazon is approaching a tipping point at which large swathes of the rainforest will be irrevocably lost.

Bolsonaro campaigned for president last year on promises to open up the Amazon to more agriculture and mining; critics accuse him of weakening environmental protections and enforcement.