Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest
The Amazon rainforest, spanning an area of 3,000,000 km2 (1,200,000 sq mi), is the world's largest rainforest. It encompasses the largest and most biodiverse tropical rainforest on the planet, representing over half of all rainforests. The Amazon region includes the territories of nine nations, with Brazil containing the majority (60%), followed by Peru (13%), Colombia (10%), and smaller portions in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.
Over one-third of the Amazon rainforest is designated as formally acknowledged indigenous territory, amounting to more than 3,344 territories. Historically, indigenous Amazonian peoples have relied on the forest for various needs such as food, shelter, water, fiber, fuel, and medicines. The forest holds significant cultural and cosmological importance for them. Despite external pressures, deforestation rates are comparatively lower in indigenous territories.
By the year 2022 around 26% of the forest was considered as deforested or highly degraded.
Cattle ranching in the Brazilian Amazon has been identified as the primary cause of deforestation, accounting for about 80% of all deforestation in the region. This makes it the world's largest single driver of deforestation, contributing to approximately 14% of the global annual deforestation. Government tax revenue has subsidized much of the agricultural activity leading to deforestation. By 1995, 70% of previously forested land in the Amazon and 91% of land deforested since 1970 had been converted for cattle ranching. The remaining deforestation primarily results from small-scale subsistence agriculture and mechanized cropland producing crops such as soy and palm.
Satellite data from 2018 revealed a decade-high rate of deforestation in the Amazon, with approximately 7,900 km2 (3,100 sq mi) destroyed between August 2017 and July 2018. The states of Mato Grosso and Pará experienced the highest levels of deforestation during this period. Illegal logging was cited as a cause by the Brazilian environment minister, while critics highlighted the expansion of agriculture as a factor encroaching on the rainforest. Researchers warn that the forest may reach a tipping point where it cannot generate sufficient rainfall to sustain itself. In the first 9 months of 2023 deforestation rate declined by 49.5% due to the policy of Lula's government and international help.