Source : Twine, Sustainable Development

Over the past 10 years a full 80% of the land cleared in the Amazon has been for raising of beef cattle, That area now is the size of the nation of Iceland.  Well, some more (sort of) downer news about deforestation in the region comes via our colleagues over at Discovery News and involves new figures released by Brazil’s National Space Research Institute:

The most recent images showed a loss of 11,968 square kilometers (4,600 square miles) of forest from Brazil's Amazonian states between Aug. 2007 and July 2008. That was up nearly 4 percent from the year before, but still nearly 20 percent below the rate of loss two years earlier.

For more on the direct link between deforestation rates and the price of soy around the world; as well as efforts by the Brazilian government to deal with this, keep reading: Deforestation Ticks Up Again in Brazil