Last October, Brazil said the rate of deforestation plunged 41 percent because of the enforcement of environmental laws.

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Over the past decade, Brazil has cracked down on clear-cutting, especially in the biodiverse Amazon rain forest, reducing the rate of deforestation by 80%.

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In 1992 Mr Gore asserted that 20% of the Amazon had been deforested and that deforestation continued at the rate of 80m hectares a year.

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Its management of the Amazon rainforest is crucial to the health of the planet, which is why the recent large reduction in the rate of deforestation has been so encouraging.

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But the environmental challenges of species protection and human poverty amelioration are only too real, with deforestation occurring at a rate of some 2% per year, at least between 2002 and 2005, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

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