Green political revolution in Brazil?

Rhett Butler from mongabay.com reports on this week's forest news.

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Green party candidate Marina Silva captured 19 percent of the vote in Brazil's presidential election, shocking analysts and forcing a run-off.

Silva, a former rubber tapper who was illiterate until the age of 16, advocates stronger protection of the Amazon rainforest.

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Global forest loss slowed to 13 million hectares per year during the past decade, down from around 16 million hectares per year during the 1990s, according to a new assessment from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

The trend accelerated during the past 5 years, especially in the tropics, where annual deforestation dropped from around 9.5 million hectares per year to 9.1 million ha.

The decline in tropical deforestation between 2005 and 2010 was mostly attributable to Brazil, which cut forest clearing by nearly 700,000 hectares per year. Among major forest countries, Mexico, Lao, Cambodia, and Cameroon also saw significant drops in deforestation.

Forest clearing increased substantially in the past five years in Indonesia (107 percent increase), Peru (94 percent), and Madagascar (36 percent).

Loss of primary forest remained high during the decade, with more than 40 million hectares being cleared or re-classified as disturbed forest.

Tree plantations expanded rapidly during the decade. Factoring in these planted forests, the rate of forrest cover loss fell from 8.3 million hectares per year to 5.2 million hectares, an area about the size of Costa Rica.