Overturning Protection Efforts Puts Brazil's Amazon at Risk

Fri Dec 05 2025 05:54:19 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

The Amazon rainforest faces increasing threats as powerful agricultural interests lobby for lifting a crucial ban intended to curb deforestation in Brazil, potentially leading to dire ecological consequences.

The Amazon rainforest is on the brink of a new wave of deforestation as calls mount to dismantle a significant ban on the sale of soya cultivated on deforested land since 2008. Advocates warn that this move could trigger a catastrophic loss of biodiversity and accelerate climate change as Brazil's agricultural sector pushes for deregulation. Critics note that the moratorium has successfully reduced deforestation rates, but recent pressures threaten its continuation amidst a backdrop of political controversy and global climate discussions.

The Amazon rainforest could face a renewed surge of deforestation as efforts grow to overturn a long-standing ban that has protected it.

The ban - which prohibits the sale of soya grown on land cleared after 2008 - is widely credited with curbing deforestation and has been held up as a global environmental success story.

But powerful farming interests in Brazil, backed by a group of Brazilian politicians, are pushing to lift the restrictions as the COP30 UN climate conference enters its second week.

Critics of the ban say it is an unfair cartel which allows a small group of powerful companies to dominate the Amazon's soya trade.

Environmental groups have warned removing the ban would be disaster, opening the way for a new wave of land grabbing to plant more soya in the world's largest rainforest.

Scientists say ongoing deforestation, combined with the effects of climate change, is already driving the Amazon towards a potential tipping point – a threshold beyond which the rainforest can no longer sustain itself.

Brazil is the world's largest producer of soya beans, a staple crop grown for its protein and an important animal feed.

Much of the meat consumed in the UK – including chicken, beef, pork and farmed fish - is raised using feeds that include soya beans, about 10% of which are sourced from the Brazilian Amazon.

Many major UK food companies, including Tesco, Sainsbury's, M&S, Aldi, Lidl, McDonald's, Greggs and KFC, are members of a coalition called the UK Soy Manifesto which represents around 60% of the soy imported into the UK.

The pressure to lift the moratorium comes as Brazil prepares to open a major new railway stretching from its agricultural heartland in the south up into the rainforest. This railway is expected to significantly cut transport costs for soya and other agricultural products, adding yet another incentive to clear more land.

Bel Lyon, chief advisor for Latin America at the World Wildlife Fund, warned that suspending the moratorium would be a disaster for the Amazon, its people, and the world, because it could open up an area the size of Portugal to deforestation.

The fear is that, if this continues, vast areas of rainforest could die away and become a savannah or dry grassland ecosystem.