Brazilian state law overturns soy moratorium that helped curb Amazon deforestation

Mato Grosso, Brazil's largest soybean producing state, has passed a law to eliminate incentives for companies participating in the Soy Moratorium, a 2006 agreement aimed at curbing deforestation in the Amazon by banning the purchase of soybeans from areas deforested after a certain date. The new law, set to take effect in 2025, will instead allow only illegally deforested areas to be banned from soybean trading. The move has received criticism from environmental nonprofits and sustainability directors, while the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change has deemed it unconstitutional and contrary to national tax reform guidelines. However, the Agriculture Minister has supported the law, stating it is stricter than the law and shows 'legitimate dissatisfaction' among producers.

AGUA CLARA, Brazil (AP) — A landmark agreement that has helped curb deforestation in Brazil's Amazon for nearly two decades has taken a major hit after Mato Grosso, the country's largest soybean producer, passed a law eliminating incentives for processing and trading companies involved. The law, passed last week, was designed to overturn the Soy Moratorium, a 2006 agreement in response to an investigation by the environmental group Greenpeace that linked soybeans produced in illegally deforested areas to U.S. commodity giants such as Cargill, Bunge and ADM. Under pressure, the companies agreed at the time not to buy soybeans produced in areas cleared after 2006. The date was later revised to July 2008. Several studies in recent years have shown that the moratorium contributed to the preservation of the Amazon. A 2020 study in the journal Nature Food found that the agreement, in combination with public policies, contributed to the steepest reduction in deforestation recorded in ...