Elon Musk and Brazil is in talks to provide Internet access to the Amazon Rainforest

The ministry claimed that SpaceX's satellites would also be used to monitor the deterioration of the world's largest rainforest.

Brazil reported Wednesday that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is in negotiations with Brazilian officials about a prospective arrangement in which the business will provide satellite internet in the Amazon jungle and assist in detecting illicit deforestation.

Brazilian Communications Minister Fabio Faria met with the billionaire tech mogul in Austin, Texas, on Monday to discuss a possible partnership in which SpaceX would send its satellite internet service, Starlink, to rural schools and health institutions, the ministry said.

Additionally, the government stated that SpaceX would use its satellites to assist in policing the destruction of the world's largest rainforest.

"We're discussing environmental issues and connecting people in rural Brazil," Faria explained in a video shared to Twitter following the meeting.

"I'm ecstatic to begin working with Starlink, SpaceX, and Brazil."

Brazil reported Wednesday that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is in negotiations with Brazilian officials about a prospective arrangement in which the business will provide satellite internet in the Amazon jungle and assist in detecting illicit deforestation.

Starlink uses a "constellation" of over 1,500 low-orbit satellites to give internet connection to the majority of the world's population, including remote locations such as the Amazon, which is 60 percent Brazilian.

The programme has the potential to bring in a connectivity revolution in Brazil, where over 40 million individuals – or roughly 19 percent of the population – lack internet connection.

Faria stated that the discussions with the US-based space corporation were focused at providing internet connection to all rural schools in Brazil, as well as indigenous reservations and other isolated regions.

The meeting comes as President Jair Bolsonaro's government battles international allegations that it has permitted a boom in Amazon deforestation, a critical resource in the fight against climate change.

Since the far-right president took office in 2019, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has increased from an average of 6,500 square kilometres (2,500 square miles) per year over the previous decade to around 10,000 square kilometres (2,500 square miles), according to government data derived from satellite images.