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

CNN: Developers, ranchers encroaching on many of world's forests

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%.

CNN: Brazil delays vote on bill regulating deforestation

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.

CNN: Does Brazil deserve its 'B' for BRIC?

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.

ECONOMIST: Plenty of gloom

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.

FORBES: Cambodia��s Paradise