Claire Asher Over 15 million hectares (57,915 square miles) of Amazon forest stand to lose their protected status as a result of changes to Brazil’s 1965 Forest Code, according to a study published in Nature Sustainability. Significant revisions to the law in 2012, and further changes approved by the Supreme Court last year, could allow rural landowners to clear large areas of privately-owned native vegetation that previously had to be conserved. (Source: Mongabay)