The suspension of the Soy Moratorium by the General Superintendence of Cade (Administrative Council for Economic Defense), announced on Monday night (18), represents a setback capable of creating insecurity in the already consolidated commodities market and causing deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon to skyrocket.
The agreement signed in 2006 is based on the premise of not trading or financing soybeans produced in areas deforested in the Amazon after August 22, 2008. According to data from the Agrosatélite company, there are currently 124 municipalities in the area covered by the Soy Moratorium monitoring, with production above 5,000 hectares; these concentrate 98% of the area cultivated with the grain in the 2022/23 harvest in the biome.
“There is political pressure to end the Soy Moratorium, but we need to recognize that the Moratorium’s positive results have raised Brazil to the internationally recognized position of responsible trade. In 16 years, the Moratorium has contributed to reducing deforestation in the Amazon at the same time as increasing grain production. This shows that the Moratorium has not harmed the commodity in Brazil and that productivity goes hand in hand with conservation. Throwing out the Moratorium is betting on insecurity for the market itself and for exports,” says Gabriela Savian, director of Public Policy at IPAM (Amazon Environmental Research Institute).
In the municipalities monitored, the average deforested area fell 69%, from 11,424 km²/year before the Moratorium (2002-2008) to 3,526 km²/year during the Moratorium (2009-2022). Meanwhile, the productivity gain for the 2022/23 harvest was 15.9% compared to the previous period, with a 6.2% increase in the planted area. In total, the soybean area has increased 4.5 times in the Amazon since the beginning of the Moratorium, from 1.64 million hectares to 7.28 million hectares.
Brazil is the world’s largest producer of soybeans, and the state of Mato Grosso accounts for 26% of the planted area – and is home to 65 of the municipalities monitored under the Moratorium. In the country, the Cerrado (49%) and the Amazon (15%) concentrate soybean planting, according to an IPAM analysis with data from MapBiomas collection 9. In 2024, the soybean sector was responsible for more than 52 billion dollars in exports.
“The Amazon and Cerrado are central to Brazilian agricultural production in that they provide an essential commodity for the growth of any crop: water. Without forest there is no rain and without rain there is no production. Thus, the apparent immediate gain from the expansion of soy over the forest can easily turn into lasting damage for producers,” says Ane Alencar, IPAM’s Science Director.
