Brazil logging. Photo: Shea Hazarian via flickrThough Brazil has pledged to slow Amazon deforestation, and several groups are making headlines trying to tackle the leading cause of that deforestation, cattle ranching, AFP reports new data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research that shows the area of trees chopped down in June was four times that of May:

In June some 578 square kilometers, mostly in Para and Mato Grosso states, was cleared. In the 12-month period from July 2008-June 2009, a total of 4,700 square kilometers was chopped down. …

On the other hand, we have this:

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon during June dropped at least 4.4 percent to the year earlier period, keeping Brazil on pace for the lowest forest loss since annual record-keeping began in 1988. Figures released by INPE, Brazil’s National Space Agency, showed that forest loss detected by its DETER (for Real-time Detection of Deforestation) system for monitoring deforestation fell from 417 square kilometers in June 2008 to 399 square kilometers in June 2009. Final figures for the 2008/2009 year are due out in the next couple of months. …

Amazon Deforestation Shoots Up in June – Forest the Size of Los Angeles Cleared in One Month