1. World Deforestation

2. Deforestation rates in tropical countries dropped significantly during the first decade of the 21st century relative to the 1990s, reveals new data released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

3. FAO figures show deforestation across 121 tropical countries averaged 9.34 million hectares per year between 2000 and 2010, down from million hectares per year in the 1990s.
Mongabay.com

4. The decline has accelerated since 2005 due Brazil's dramatic reduction of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, which peaked at 27,772 square kilometers in 2004 but is expected to come in at less than 8,000 for Overall Brazil's reduction in deforestation since 2005—which fell from 3.2 million hectares per year from to 2.5 million hectares in —more than offset increases in forest clearing in other major forest countries including Indonesia (107 percent increase), Peru (94 percent), and Madagascar (36 percent) during the period.
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5. FAO estimates global deforestation fell from 16 million hectares per year in the 1990s to 13 million hectares per year in the past decade. Factoring in planted forests, the loss of forest cover fell from 8.3 million hectares per year to 5.2 million hectares, an area about the size of Costa Rica.
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6. Deforestation in Brazil
In many tropical countries, the majority of deforestation results from the actions of poor subsistence cultivators. However, in Brazil only about one-third of recent deforestation can be linked to "shifted" cultivators. Historically a large portion of deforestation in Brazil can be attributed to land clearing for pastureland by commercial and speculative interests, misguided government policies, inappropriate World Bank projects, and commercial exploitation of forest resources. For effective action it is imperative that these issues be addressed. Focusing solely on the promotion of sustainable use by local people would neglect the most important forces behind deforestation in Brazil.
Mongabay.com

7. The Scene
The Amazon rainforest is one of the most biodiverse regions on earth. It is home to nearly 10% of the world’s mammals1 and a staggering 15% of the world’s known land-based plant species, with as many as 300 species of tree in a single hectare.
Greenpeace

8. The Scene
The region is also home to about 220,000 people from 180 different indigenous nations3 who live deep in the rainforest, along with many more traditional forest-dependent communities. The rainforest provides these people with everything from food and shelter to tools and medicines, and plays a crucial role in the spiritual life of indigenous peoples.
Greenpeace

9. The Scene
All this is threatened by deforestation and related crimes, committed for the sake of the profits to be made from agricultural commodities such as soya.
Greenpeace

10. The Crime
Between August 2003 and August 2004, 27,200km – an area the size of Belgium – was lost. Three-quarters of this destruction was illegal.5 That’s an area 10km long by 7.5km wide lost every day. More than 3km2 every hour. A football pitch every eight seconds.
Greenpeace

11. The Criminals
Three US-based agricultural commodities giants – Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Bunge and Cargill – are responsible for about 60% of the total financing of soya production in Brazil. Together, these three companies also control more than three-quarters of the soya crushing capacity in Europe that supplies soya meal and oil to the animal feed market.
Greenpeace

12. The Criminals
80% of the world’s soya production is fed to the livestock industry.
Spiralling demand for soya animal feed from European agribusiness is driving the expansion of the agricultural frontier into the Amazon rainforest. Europe buys half the soya exported from the Amazon state of Mato Grosso, where 90% of rainforest soya is grown.
Greenpeace

13. Danger to those who oppose deforestation
Chico Mendes and Brazil
Based on the Greenpeace presentation on commercial farming for animal feed, did the death of Chico Mendes make a difference?
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