Mongabay series: Amazon Agribusiness

Report details soy supply chains, shows that just six traders control most of Brazil’s deforestation risk. Report is product of Trase, a powerful new Internet tracking tool.

APG and Robeco are two of the most recent companies to sign on to the Cerrado Manifesto, which calls for an end to deforestation in Brazil's Cerrado biome.

Data from a Brazilian forest monitoring group suggests deforestation is surging in the world's largest rainforest, with last month's rate of forest loss in the Amazon hitting the highest level…

Current Brazilian government policies could increase deforestation and carbon emissions, costing the nation $2-5 trillion dollars more to meet its Paris Climate Agreement pledge.

Transnational commodities firm pledges to eliminate Amazon and Cerrado deforestation from its supply chain; environmentalists laud the plan, but say it lacks implementation and timeline details.

A surge in Amazon deforestation is trending this year, with a 22 percent rise from August 2017 to May 2018. Experts say land thieves and politics may be at the heart of the problem.

Traditional communities in Bahia, Brazil, have won a court case against Agronegócio Estrondo, an agribusiness company, which illegally seized lands from the communities.

Strategies for slowing deforestation in the Amazon region of Brazil appear to be weakening. The area of forest cleared in 2017, 6,947 square kilometers, was 50 percent greater than in…

The unintended consequences of a U.S./China trade war could shift Chinese soy purchases from the U.S. to Brazil, leading to rising Amazon deforestation, and a hazardous climate change tipping point.

According to a study published in the journal PloS One late last year, the Brazilian Amazon has about 2.3 million square kilometers (nearly 900,000 square miles) of land suitable for…

Brazilian law allows landless families to claim abandoned private land. But Gabriel Filho residents have been evicted by a large-scale landowner accused of killing the hamlet’s namesake.

Brazilian environmental authorities unleashed Operation Soy Sauce at the end of May, fining soy commodities traders and farmers $29 million for illegal Cerrado deforestation.

The Netherlands for more than a decade has quietly supported Brazil’s plan for the Northern Corridor; road, rail and port projects that would do major harm to the Amazon, harm the Dutch disregarded.

Brazilian loggers have faked forest inventories and issued phony timber credits to harvest Ipê trees exported to U.S. and Europe. Importers often turn a blind eye: report.

A coalition of environmental analysts has a practical plan to end deforestation in the Amazon, and to boost agribusiness production and profit across the region. It starts by everyone sitting down at a table.

Most oil palm production in Pará state has so far been on degraded lands, but researchers warn a coming Brazilian oil palm boom could result in large-scale Amazon deforestation.

Brazil’s bancada ruralista has attached a wave of riders to bills in Congress that could overthrow the nation’s environmental and indigenous protections. There is a high chance of passage.

“Grazing the Amazon,” a new film, is winning international acclaim and bringing public attention to severe deforestation caused by cattle ranching in the Brazilian Amazon.

Indigenous and traditional groups united in a protest last week in Brazil’s capitol seeking territory demarcation, consultation on infrastructure projects, and an end to violence.

A study finds that abandoned pasture does not regain its former biodiversity, even after 25 years. Introducing fire as a management tool could help enrich habitat.

Brazil is reporting its CO2 emissions within U.N. guidelines, but the nation’s true carbon releases due to forest degradation, wildfires and other key sources could be far higher.

The Cerrado Manifesto could reduce rapid conversion of forest to cropland in Brazil’s savannah, but commodity firms Cargill, Bunge, ADM need to sign on, analysts say.

People donating to Harvard University’s endowment fund, or investing with TIAA-CREF and other financial firms are likely unaware their investments could be funding land theft in Brazil — a Mongabay exclusive.

The Temer administration ignored UN letters warning of threats to land defenders and environmentalists, and condemning Brazil’s record number of activist murders.

Nearly 50 percent of Brazil’s lower house of congress received political donations from companies and individuals who committed environmental crimes, raising questions about influence peddling.

The vast Cerrado savannah feeds many Brazilian watersheds and aquifers. But irrigation by expanding agribusiness is reducing supply, leading to conflicts with traditional farming communities.

With Amazon deforestation due to soy production much reduced, agribusiness has vastly expanded into the Cerrado savannah next door; environmentalists are rushing to save what’s left.

Most environmentalists expect more deforestation in the Amazon and elsewhere due to last week’s high court ruling upholding the constitutionality of much of the 2012 New Forest Code.

A 2007 study estimated that with 40% Amazon deforestation a tipping point could be reached, converting forest to savannah. New factors put that tipping point at 20-25%. Deforestation is now at 17%.

In an hugely important decision, the Brazilian Supreme Court Thursday upheld the constitutionality of the 2012 New Forest Code, a weaker body of environmental regulations than the 1965 Forest Code.