Threat to Brazil's Amazon: Key Protection Against Deforestation Under Fire

Mon Nov 17 2025 12:11:29 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

The Amazon rainforest faces significant threats as Brazilian politicians and agricultural interests push to lift a ban that has long protected its ecosystem. This development raises concerns about a surge in deforestation during the ongoing COP30 climate conference.

As Brazil's COP30 climate conference progresses, a critical ban on the sale of soya produced on deforested land post-2008 is under threat. Advocacy groups warn that lifting the ban could unleash devastating deforestation, putting the Amazon's ecosystem at risk of a tipping point. The situation reflects a clash between agricultural expansion interests and environmental preservation efforts, spotlighting the importance of the Amazon for global sustainability.

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 group supports the ban, known as the Amazon Soy Moratorium, because they argue it helps ensure UK soy supply chains remain free from deforestation.

Public opinion in the UK appears to be firmly behind protecting the Amazon. A World Wildlife Fund survey conducted earlier this year found that 70% of respondents supported government action to eliminate illegal deforestation from UK supply chains.

But Brazilian opponents of the agreement last week demanded the Supreme Court - the highest court in the country – reopen an investigation into whether the moratorium amounts to anti-competitive behaviour.

The voluntary agreement was first signed almost two decades ago by farmers, environmental organizations, and major global food companies, including commodities giants such as Cargill and Bunge.

Bel Lyon, chief advisor for Latin America at the World Wildlife Fund - one of the agreement's original signatories – 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.

Scientists have been monitoring detailed changes in the Amazon for decades. The Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment (LBA) aims to understand how the Amazon is changing, and how close it is to a critical threshold, with deforestation already leading to profound impacts on the ecosystem.