BRASILIA (dpa-AFX) - As the raging forest fires continue to engulf the Amazon rain forest in Brazil, experts have raised alarm that it could spread into the flooded forest habitat and destroy hundreds of fish species living there.
Further degradation of the flooded forests as a result of increasing deforestation and fire could change the Amazon's aquatic ecosystem, researchers say.
'If we don't protect these areas, the rivers will not be the same and we will lose the fish,' says Leandro Castello, an expert on the links between forest and fish in the Amazon.
It has been estimated that there are more than 3,000 fish species in the Amazon.
Meanwhile, UK Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn criticized Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro saying that he emboldened the criminals who started the Amazon fires.
'This is an act of self-harm on Brazil and our entire planet,' Corbyn said on Twitter.
He accused that Bolsanaro's government denied the Amazon is burning and he hasn't helped the firefighters who are tackling the fires. ? A bipartisan Bill to help put pressure on the Brazilian government to halt reckless deforestation of the Amazon and fight the fires was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this week.
Rep Peter De Fazio took the lead while Rep Mike Thompson cosponsored the Act for the Amazon Act.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX