Brazil lifts soy ban, opening Amazon to deforestation ahead of climate summit
Brazilian regulators have suspended the Amazon soy moratorium, a key deforestation safeguard, potentially allowing vast new areas of rainforest to be cleared just months before the COP30 climate summit.
Jonathan Watts reports for The Guardian.
In short:
- The anti-monopoly agency CADE ordered soy traders to suspend the 2006 moratorium that banned sourcing soy from newly deforested areas in the Amazon, warning of penalties for noncompliance.
- Environmentalists say the rollback could expose up to 10 million hectares — an area the size of Portugal — to soy-driven deforestation, threatening climate goals and damaging the credibility of Brazil's environmental policies.
- Agribusiness groups, especially in Mato Grosso, pushed for the change, claiming the moratorium created unfair trade barriers; conservationists and companies like the World Wildlife Fund urge traders to maintain voluntary protections.
Key quote:
“Without the soy moratorium, considered one of the most effective multi-stakeholder agreements in the world, soy will once again become a major driver of Amazon deforestation, and this will bury any chance of Brazil meeting its climate targets.”
— Cristiane Mazzetti, forest campaign coordinator, Greenpeace Brazil
Why this matters:
The Amazon rainforest stores vast amounts of carbon and helps regulate global temperatures. Deforestation there not only threatens biodiversity but accelerates climate change, disrupts rainfall patterns, and increases the risk of disease outbreaks. Soy production, mostly for livestock feed, is a major driver of forest loss in Brazil. The soy moratorium helped curb this trend for nearly two decades by making deforestation a liability in global supply chains. Its suspension could now shift incentives, encouraging land clearance on a scale that dwarfs recent conservation efforts. As the Amazon edges closer to a climate tipping point, decisions like this ripple far beyond Brazil’s borders.
Learn more: Brazil urged to reject bill slashing environmental safeguards
