New York Times: Brazil expects to see its lowest rates of illegal deforestation since 1988 by the end of this year. Minister of Environment Izabella Teixeira said the government will reduce the annual chopping and burning of the Amazon rainforest to between 4,000 and 5,000 square kilometers. The figures will be announced in the run-up to this year’s U.N. climate change conference in Cancun, Mexico, this December. The Amazon clearing is a far cry from the 24,000 square kilometers the so-called …