Brazil Cuts Amazon Deforestation by 70%; Industry Adapts

After slowing deforestation of the Amazon 70% in the last 10 years, according to a report in Science (sub required), Brazil “has seen enormous strides in the very agriculture industries that rely on the region’s flat landscape, low elevation, and temperate climate.” In 2005, then-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva set out to reduce deforestation 80% compared to the previous year, Clean Capital reports. “Far from discouraging agricultural activity, these measures have encouraged sectors responsible for past deforestation to develop practices that align with government regulations at the same time as meeting international export demands. Brazil’s beef and soy production industries, for example, in spite of the anti-deforestation policies, have remained among the world’s largest.”