Agriculture is associated with more than 90% of deforestation in tropical areas

The vast majority of deforestation in tropical forests in the world is directly or indirectly related to agriculture, but not necessarily to a productive agricultural activity. A significant portion of this felling is linked to points very familiar to the Brazilian reality of Amazonian losses, such as deforestation for speculation and land problems.

This is what shows a new research published in Science, one of the main scientific journals in the world, this Thursday (8).

According to the study, agriculture was the main driver of forest loss in at least 90% of the world’s deforested tropical lands. Pasture expansion accounts for approximately half of the clearing associated with agricultural activity. Brazil is part of this rule and deforestation here is especially associated with cattle ranching, according to data from other studies and surveys.

The research also points out that soybean and palm oil crops are responsible for about 20% of deforestation, while cocoa, coffee, rice, corn, cassava and rubber crops are associated with virtually all the rest of the destruction. .

Soybeans also used to be a big problem in Brazilian deforestation. The situation, however, was, to a large extent, controlled, after the country put into practice the soy moratorium, which put a brake on deforestation associated with the grain in the Amazon.

Even so, there are studies that point out that shipments of this crop planted in areas of recent deforestation still “contaminate” the grains sold. Another study (named “The poor apples of Brazilian agribusiness”) published in the same journal Science, in 2020, pointed out that the destruction of the Amazon and the cerrado, which is concentrated in a minority of farms, may be contaminating about 20% of the soy and at least 17% of meat exported to the EU (European Union).

The new research published this Thursday also points out that there are problems in properly tracking deforestation related to different crops, especially due to lack of data or information of not necessarily high quality.

“This shows that, despite the critical role of public and private policies in promoting deforestation-free international production chains, their ability to actually reduce deforestation is fundamentally limited,” the study authors say.

And that’s because, according to the survey, about one-third to one-half of deforestation associated with agriculture and livestock does not result in truly productive areas. In addition, most (about 75%) of the expansion of agricultural areas over forests is driven by the countries’ domestic market, with emphasis on meat and cereal production.

“These data suggest that measures in international production chains can have a greater impact through interventions in areas at risk of deforestation focused on strengthening sustainable rural development and territorial governance”, say the researchers who signed the work.