What is clearing the Amazon, and how fast?

Mostly cattle, then crops such as soy, helped by roads and by policy. The numbers depend on who counted and when, so this lesson dates and attributes each one.

Start with cattle. According to a 2004 World Bank paper and a 2009 Greenpeace report, cattle ranching in the Brazilian Amazon has been identified as responsible for approximately 80 percent of deforestation in the region. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization reported in 2006 that 70 percent of previously forested land in the Amazon, and 91 percent of the land deforested since 1970, is now used for livestock pasture. Government tax revenue has subsidized much of the agricultural activity that leads to deforestation. Most beef-related deforestation is driven by domestic demand, not exports.

Soy is the second story. Soybeans, grown mostly for export, biodiesel and animal feed, have been a significant driver of forest loss, and one estimate put soy at around 15 percent of Amazon deforestation in 2011. In 2006 major trading companies, including Cargill, pledged not to buy soy grown on newly cleared land. A 2015 study found that after eight years, soy had expanded by 1.3 million hectares but only about 1 percent of that expansion came at the expense of forest. Palm oil is largely a Southeast Asian story: forests have been cleared in parts of Indonesia and Malaysia for oil palm.

Roads opened the door: deforestation escalated after highways such as the Trans-Amazonian Highway of 1972 pushed deep into the forest. By 2022, about 20 percent of the Amazon had been deforested and another 6 percent was highly degraded. The rate fell greatly between 2004 and 2014 and has risen since, and a May 2025 analysis found that tropical primary forest loss in 2024 was nearly twice that of 2023, with Brazil's share driven largely by fires in its worst drought on record. Meanwhile, deforestation is comparatively lower in Indigenous territories.