Mongabay: Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell nearly 46 percent to the lowest annual loss on record in 2009, reported the Brazilian government Thursday. INPE, the country’s space agency, found that 7,008 square kilometers (2,705 square miles) of forest were cleared during the 12-month period ended July 2009, the lowest extent since annual record-keeping began in 1988. "The new deforestation data represents an extraordinary and significant reduction for Brazil," President Luiz …