Brazil's government is now claiming that the destruction of the Amazon rainforest is declining. Yea, probably because they ahve already cut half of it down. There were 6,500 square miles lost last year due to farmers clearing the forests for soybean farms. This number decreased by 11% from the year before. It is estimated that 1.6 million square miles of Brazil's rainforest area has already been destroyed. That's one third of the largest rainforest on earth.