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As we revealed in early April, McDonald's have been implicated in the clearance of the Amazon rainforest to grow soya for animal feed and, thanks to the thousands of emails and letters you sent, they're talking to us about how they can get out of the Amazon.

Soya farming is chewing up the Amazon rainforest at unprecedented rates as huge areas are cleared to make way for massive monoculture plantations. In the Name of Progress, a film produced by Greenpeace, illustrates the devastating effects that the booming soya market is having on the world's largest remaining rainforest.

The Amazon rainforest covers 5 per cent of the world's land and extends over some 7.8 million kilometres. It is one of the most biodiverse regions on earth - at least 30 per cent of the world's land-based animal and plant species live there. The Amazon is also home to about 220,000 people from 180 different indigenous nations who live deep in the rainforest, and it plays a vital role in maintaining the world's climate.

Greenpeace protesters unfurl a massive banner in an area of illegally cleared Amazon rainforest - the farmer's car is parked in the middle

Deep in the Amazon forest, Greenpeace protesters clashed with the man responsible for a major 'forest crime' - the destruction of a vast area of pristine forest.

As President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil paid a visit to Buckingham Palace today, the Greenpeace forest football squad were there to remind him that the world has a vested interest in the future of the Amazon rainforest.

Just one week after the excellent news about the Great Bear Rainforest comes another stunning victory with the announcement that a huge area of the Amazon rainforest will be protected from destructive logging.

On 12 February 2005, Sister Dorothy Strang was assassinated for defending the rights of rural workers in the Amazon. For more than 30 years, she had campaigned against the human rights abuses and environmental degradation that continue to plague Pará State as the interests of the forest-dwelling communities are disregarded in favour of land-grabbers, ranchers and loggers.

As a major market for tropical hardwood, the European Union plays a key role in the international trade in illegal and destructively sourced timber. Yet, currently no laws in Europe allow authorities to seize shipments of illegally logged timber, nor hold importers and traders of illegal timber accountable. These traders remain free to profit from forest destruction.