Amazon Rainforest Destruction

http://www.mongabay.com/brazil.html
This article is about the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest.  Between May 2000-August 2006 Brazil lost about 150,000 square km of rainforest, and since 1971 600,000 km of rainforest had been destroied.  All of this destruction is due commercial agriculture, logging, fires, and some mining.  Currently, commercial agriculture is the biggest problem or source of destruction.  Luckilly, loging in the Amazon is controlled by strict licensing, which allows timber to be harvested in only designated areas.  In 2003 17 loggers were arrested for illegially cutting down about 10,000 hectares of timber.