Brazil reduces estimate of 2008 Amazon rainforest destruction RIO DE JANEIRO, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian Environment Minister Carlos Minc Tuesday said the government has revised its estimate of the Amazon rainforest's total destruction area for 2008 from 15,000 to 13,000 square km.

Environmentalists are praising Brazil’s new environment minister for reaching an agreement with the grain processing industry to ban purchases of soy from deforested Amazon until July 2009.

By Rocha, Jan BRAZIL A flamboyant left-wing ecologist, Carlos Mine, has replaced Marina Silva as Brazil's environment minister.

Brazil's new environment minister has announced that his government will begin to impound cattle grazing on illegally cleared pastures.

New satellite photographs show that the destruction of Brazil's fragile Amazon rainforest has exploded this year, fueling fears that the government's efforts to stop deforestation have been fruitless.