The Amazon, an area twice the size of India, holds the world’s largest rainforest, about two-thirds of it within Brazil. It stores vast amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that causes climate change.

BRASILIA, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon fell 30.6% in the 12 months through July compared to the same period a year prior, according to government data released on Wednesday -- the smallest area destroyed in the world's largest rainforest in nine years.

The Brazilian Amazon experienced its smallest amount of yearly deforestation in nearly a decade, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government reported Wednesday, in line with its promise to combat forest loss.