Photo: Amazon Deforestation Drops 25 Percent, Brazil Says



The annual amount of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon Basin (above, a razed jungle) fell 25 percent from July 2005 to July 2006, new government figures show.


But environmental groups argue that the decrease was largely due to a drop in market demand for crops such as soybeans, not crackdowns on illegal logging.


Photograph by Bruno Domingos/Reuters

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