Amazon Soy
‘Amazing first step’ as EU law cracks down on deforestation-linked imports
JAKARTA — The European Union has finalized a law that will ban the trade of commodities associated with deforestation and forest degradation. On Dec. 6, the European Council, Parliament and Commission struck a preliminary deal to adopt the deforestation-free regulation, proposed by the European Commission in 2021. The Parliament and the Council will still have to formally […]
2022 Amazon fires tightly tied to recent deforestation, new data show
This year’s Amazon fire season was milder than the previous two years, but there were still nearly 1,000 major fires, many of them in recently cleared areas in the Brazilian Amazon, highlighting a key link between deforestation and fires. Using ground and atmospheric data, the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) documented 983 major […]
Deforestation is pushing Amazon to ‘point of no return’: WWF report
Deforestation is pushing the Amazon rainforest dangerously close to its tipping point, and the effects could soon be felt across the globe. A new report from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), called the Living Amazon Report, warns that threats to the Amazon have worsened in recent years, and could result in the disappearance of the […]
Biofertilizers cut costs and GHG emissions for Brazilian soybean producers
Brazilian soybean producers have been highly successful in using genome technology to benefit their crops, with huge economic and environmental gains, a new paper highlights. Currently, the growers are using biofertilizer on 80% of their crops and their benefits are pushing scientists to develop new bioproducts for other crops as well. Scientists in Brazil have […]
Beef is still coming from protected areas in the Amazon, study shows
Some of the world’s largest beef exporters are still buying cattle that grazed in protected areas of the Amazon rainforest, despite commitments to stop this practice, according to a new study. The report, published today in the journal Conservation Letters found that millions of cattle grazed in protected areas (PAs) in the Brazilian states of Mato […]
Commodity kings Cargill, Bunge buying soy from stolen Indigenous land, report says
Two of the world’s largest agricultural producers are caught up in another scandal involving soy grown on illegally seized Indigenous land in Brazil. Both Cargill and Bunge source some of their soy products, used in products like chicken feed and pet food, from land where Indigenous communities have suffered violence and displacement, according to a new […]
Big banks fund the heavy machinery used for Amazon deforestation, report says
The deforestation sweeping across the Brazilian Amazon is driven largely by industrial agriculture, mining and cattle ranching. But those activities wouldn’t be possible without heavy machinery like bulldozers and tractors, and the big banks that often finance their purchase. Questionable business practices, weak government oversight and a lack of transparency make buying heavy machinery in […]
Industrial soy drives deforestation spike in southeastern Brazil, satellite images show
Deforestation is rising in a vulnerable part of the Amazon rainforest due to increased activity by industrial agricultural producers, who are burning down large pieces of territory to create new plantations. A new report from NGO Amazon Conservation analyzed satellite data in the southeastern state of Mato Grosso, discovering surprising amounts of deforestation connected to […]
‘Giving up’: Amazon is losing its resilience under human pressure, study shows
The Amazon Rainforest is resilient: the largest rainforest on the planet has been around for at least 55 million years, surviving repeated ice ages and warming. But human impacts, combined with climate change, are decreasing that resiliency, causing the forest to lose its ability to bounce back from repeated disturbances, according to a new study published […]
French deforestation database pressures Brazilian soy traders to clean up supply chain
France is taking new steps to ensure that products imported from Brazil aren’t contributing to deforestation in vulnerable forests and savannahs. The French government published a new risk analysis platform earlier this month that shows how much activity by soy traders is causing tree cover loss. The tool is intended to implement more rigorous oversight […]