BRAZIL CUTS DEFORESTATION ALMOST 50%

Photo Alberto Cesar, Greenpeace

Change - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced that the rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon plummeted 46 percent between August 2008 to July 2009, according to a government press release. That is the lowest rate in 20 years, since the government started collecting data 1988. . . Brazil's Ministry of Environment claims that deforestation has slowed so rapidly due to the Action Plan for Deforestation Control and Prevention in the Amazon launched in 2004, which strengthened anti-deforestation monitoring and enforcement, demarcated conservation areas and encouraged sustainable livelihood options in the Amazon.