Deforestation associated with soy production in Brazil remains a persistent issue. While deforestation has slowed in parts of the Amazon—one of the country’s critical biomes—extensive areas of the Cerrado continue to be cleared and cultivated.
In September, the report Land Grabbing and Ecocide examined the ongoing deforestation caused by U.S. businesses with interests in Brazil. Gaurav Madan, senior forest and land rights campaigner at Friends of the Earth U.S. and co-author of the report, noted, “While governments must prioritize protecting the Amazon, they cannot allow unethical companies to exploit the neighboring Cerrado for soybean production. Although deforestation in the Amazon has decelerated following the end of Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency, the destruction of the Cerrado remains at a critical level.”
In March, environmental advocacy group Mighty Earth reported that nearly 60,000 hectares of forest were lost in both the Amazon and Cerrado between September and December 2023. The organization placed the responsibility primarily on the world’s largest soy traders. “Our analysis shows that major soy traders still lack full oversight of their operations, with some unwilling to recognize the risks and terminate relationships with problematic sectors,” said Alex Wijeratna, senior director of Mighty Earth.
By May, MapBiomas Brasil’s annual RAD report indicated that deforestation rates in the Cerrado had surged by 68% in 2023, exceeding those of the Amazon for the first time since the report’s inception in 2019. More than 1.1 million hectares of native vegetation were lost, making deforestation in the Cerrado double that of the Amazon. The Cerrado, a savannah covering two million square kilometers in eastern Brazil, is vital for biodiversity, as it hosts 5% of the world’s animal and plant species, serves as a major carbon sink, and acts as a vast water reservoir. However, it is also the site of 60% of Brazil’s agricultural production, which has driven the loss of over half of its native vegetation.
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