State of the Rainforest 2014

Soy

Cattle

The cattle industry became the symbol of the large-scale destruction of the Amazonian rainforest in the 1990s. Driven largely by growth in production of beef, for both domestic and international markets, the cattle herd stocks in the Amazon region tripled from 1990 to 2008. 21 Brazil has become one of the world’s largest beef exporters, and today the cattle industry is responsible for between 61 and 75% of the rainforest destruction in the Brazilian Amazon. 22 It is estimated that production must increase by 70% by 2050 to meet the demand for beef from the global population. 23 Cattle ranching is an attractive option; it demands little investment and often gives high returns. In Brazil, forest land and labour are cheap, particularly in the north, and maintenance costs are low. It is a low-risk investment compared to cash crops, which are more vulnerable to pests and price fluctuations. Clearing forests and placing cattle on the land is also a way to gain title to the land in Brazil. There have been no incentives for ranchers to intensify production; approximately one cow per hectare has demanded large areas and entailed huge environmental costs. The Brazil case also makes evident how various drivers may interact, when the lucrative soy production expands into areas previously used for cattle, pushing ranchers to clear forest for new pastures.

Soybean cultivation took off in the 1990s, and has since then grown rapidly, becoming one of the main threats to the forests in the southern Amazon region. From 1994 to 2008, soybean production in Brazil increased by approximately 135%. 17 During the deforestation peak from 2000 to 2005, it was estimated that one-fourth of the deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon was caused by the expansion of soybean cultivation. 18 Most of the global soy crop is processed into animal feed, for which there has been a rising demand in Europe and Asia, especially China. Large soy monocultures threaten biodiversity, destroy soil fertility, pollute fresh water and displace local communities. Even more important is the indirect impact of soy production on rainforests. Soy expansion has driven up land prices and encouraged infrastructure projects that entail forest clearing, and a comprehensive study from 2011 indicates that soy expansion in existing cattle pastures displaces ranchers into frontier forest areas, triggering new deforestation. 19 The moratorium on soybean expansion into the rainforest, introduced in Brazil in 2006, significantly reduced the sector’s direct role in deforestation. 20 However, the moratorium is under considerable pressure from the Brazilian agribusiness industry, and has only been renewed for one year at a time, last through January 2015. The soy industry has developed certification schemes to try to deal with social and environmental concerns related to soy production; the two most widely known are ProTerra and Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS). However, both of these are fairly new and have had limited impactso far.

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STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014