Niki Gloudeman at MoJo's Blue Marble blog has the scoop on a Brazilian plan to slow the rapacious destruction of Brazil's precious Amazon.

The Brazilian government announced this week that it will curb Amazon deforestation by 70 percent over the next decade--an ambitious plan that will be formally presented at the UN climate change conference in Poland this week.

Home to the world's largest area of tropical woodlands, Brazil lost nearly 4,633 square miles of forest between 2007 and 2008. That's roughly the area of Connecticut. Previous efforts to limit deforestation include a recent crackdown on soy production.

Brazil's Environment Minister Carlos Minc said the plan should prevent 4.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted through 2018.

I like my soy and all, but I certainly prefer air without 4.8 billion tons of additional carbon dioxide.

(image from flickr user gidsicki under a Creative Commons license)