The Amazon rainforest
The world's largest rainforest, where cattle ranching drives deforestation that Brazil is now cutting through enforcement and protected areas.
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Evidence
9 figures, each threaded to its source
Area of the Amazon
6 millionsquare kilometres
3 sources
thinklandscape.globallandscapesforum.org
“At more than 6 million square kilometers, the Amazon is the world's largest rainforest”
Tree species
16,000species
2 sources
thinklandscape.globallandscapesforum.org
“Scientists have identified some 40,000 different plant species and 16,000 tree species”
Peak deforestation in 2004
27,772square kilometres
3 sources
“The PRODES data have been used to highlight the marked decline in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon over the last decade, where deforestation was reported to have fallen from a record 27,772 km² in 2004 to 4,571 km² in 2012”
Deforestation in the year to July 2025
5,796square kilometres
2 sources
“deforestation in the 12 months ending July 2025 fell 11% to 5,796 square kilometers”
Cattle ranching share of Brazilian Amazon deforestation, 2009 estimate
80percent
3 sources
“Clearing land for cattle is responsible for 80 percent of rainforest loss in the Brazilian Amazon.”
Forest loss in Brazil in 2020
11,000square kilometres
2 sources
thinklandscape.globallandscapesforum.org
“almost one-fifth of the forest has been destroyed, with 11,000 square kilometers of forest loss in 2020 alone”
Share of world's known species
10percent
2 sources
thinklandscape.globallandscapesforum.org
“between 10 percent and 30 percent of world's known species found there”
Fall in deforestation in the year to July 2025
11percent
“reported that deforestation in the 12 months ending July 2025 fell 11% to 5,796 square kilometers”
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Background
The Amazon is the largest tropical rainforest on Earth, covering more than 6 million square kilometres across nine countries, with nearly 60 percent in Brazil. The climate is hot and wet all year, and the forest holds staggering biodiversity, including some 16,000 tree species. Its plants and animals are closely adapted to the conditions. Buttress roots prop up giant emergent trees, drip tip leaves shed heavy rain, and most life is found high in the canopy. Since the 1970s large areas have been cleared. Cattle ranching is the biggest cause, followed by soy farming, logging, mining and the roads that open the forest to all of them. Clearance peaked at 27,772 square kilometres in 2004, fell sharply, rose again after 2015, and has fallen once more under tighter enforcement, reaching 5,796 square kilometres in the year to July 2025. Deforestation destroys habitats, releases carbon and threatens the people who depend on the forest, and scientists warn that continued losses could push parts of it past a tipping point into dry grassland. Brazil now tries to manage the forest with protected areas, satellite monitoring and pressure on the beef and soy industries.
Causes
Cattle ranching clears the most forest
Ranching accounts for about 80 percent of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Land is cheap, grass grows quickly on cleared plots, and cattle can walk to market, so ranching is the easiest way to earn from a claimed patch of forest. Brazil's position as a leading beef exporter keeps demand high, and pasture now covers vast areas of former forest.
Soy, logging and mining follow the roads
Highways such as the Cuiabá to Santarém road and the Trans-Amazonian opened remote forest to settlers. Loggers take the valuable hardwoods first, then farmers burn what remains. Soy plantations spread across cleared land to feed the world market for animal feed, and gold and iron ore mines strip forest and pollute rivers with sediment and mercury.
Poverty and land speculation reward clearance
Many settlers clear forest because they have few other ways to earn a living, and clearing land has historically been the way to prove ownership of it. Weak enforcement across a forest of this size lets illegal clearance go unpunished in remote areas, and cleared land sells for far more than standing forest.
Effects
Primary
- Deforestation peaked at 27,772 square kilometres in 2004 and still removed 5,796 square kilometres in the year to July 2025.
- Habitat is destroyed for thousands of species in the most biodiverse forest on Earth.
- Burning and decay of cleared forest release large amounts of carbon dioxide.
Secondary
- Fewer trees recycle less water to the atmosphere, reducing rainfall across the region.
- Cleared soils lose their nutrients within a few years, pushing farmers to clear fresh forest.
- Scientists warn that continued clearance could tip parts of the forest into dry savanna.
Social
- Indigenous groups lose land, food sources and in some cases their whole way of life.
- Land disputes between ranchers, settlers and forest communities can turn violent.
- New roads and farms bring jobs, schools and clinics to some frontier towns.
Economic
- Beef, soy, timber and minerals from cleared land earn Brazil billions in exports.
- Ranching and farming jobs draw migrant workers to the deforestation frontier.
- Long term losses mount as fires, floods and worn out soils cut the land's productivity.
Environmental
- About one fifth of the forest in Brazil has already been destroyed.
- Mining silts and pollutes rivers, and mercury enters food chains.
- Carbon released by clearance makes the forest a weaker brake on climate change.
Responses
Immediate
- INPE satellites detect fresh clearance within days so that enforcement teams can respond.
- IBAMA agents fine illegal loggers and ranchers and destroy equipment used for clearance.
- Fire bans and firefighting teams target the burning season each dry year.
Long term
- Protected areas and demarcated Indigenous territories now cover large parts of the forest.
- The soy moratorium of 2006 stopped major traders buying soy grown on newly deforested land.
- The Amazon Fund channels international money, much of it from Norway, into forest protection.
- Renewed enforcement cut clearance 11 percent in the year to July 2025, the lowest for 11 years.
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