what are the top main causes of deforestation?

• Cattle ranching


  Accounts for 80% of deforestation
• Forest conversion to grassland is more than doubled of the deforestation caused by soya, palm oil production or logging
• There are 24 million cows in Para State (eastern Amazon) alone, requiring over 100 football pitches per day
• Soy production


  Only has indirect impacts on deforestation as soy is mostly planted in the transition forests in the southern fringes of the Amazon Basin
• Soy expansion drove up land prices, therefore promoted forest clearing elsewhere in the Amazon
• Soy production displaced cattle ranchers who moved into frontier areas of the Amazon, causing direct deforestation
• Forest clearing increases risk of wildfires in the Amazon
• As forests are cut, downed trees are typically left to dry out for a few months or even years. When dry season comes, fires start springing up in these fuel-rich cleared areas
• Fires have been detected to burn over several days to even several years unchecked
• August is the driest season in the Amazon, highest risk of wildfires associated with deforestation
• Farmers use this period of dry weather to set fires to clear fields ready to plant crops
• Illegal land grabbers often use fire to clear the land quickly in the Amazon, leading to wildfires
• Forest clearers for commercial agriculture use slash-and-burn techniques to clear land but on a much larger scale than traditional practices (up to thousands of hectares is burnt)
• President Bolsonaro ran the election on the platform of turning the Amazon into Brazil's 'economic soul', giving free rein to agribusiness giants, mining corporations, developers


  2019-2022
• Bolsonaro was against designating indigenous land as protected
• Bolsonaro weakened environmental protections & indigenous land rights, approving 24% cut to 2021 environmental budget
• Due to lack of funding, only 3% of environmental crimes in protected areas were investigated fully by IMABA in the State of Para
• An area 5 times the size of New York City was cleared in the first 6 months of 2022 alone (highest in last 6 years)
• A new government body was created to pardon environmental fines
• Illegal occupation of indigenous land (hence deforestation) reached over 300 cases in 2021
• Changes to government policies


  Played an important role in encouraging deforestation