Home / Environment / Amazon Rainforest Faces Renewed Deforestation Risk as Soy Ban Challenged
Amazon Rainforest Faces Renewed Deforestation Risk as Soy Ban Challenged
17 Nov
Summary
- Powerful farming interests in Brazil push to lift long-standing ban on soy grown on deforested land
- UK retailers and environmental groups warn lifting the ban would be "disaster" for the Amazon
- Ongoing deforestation and climate change already driving the Amazon towards a "tipping point"
In November 2025, the Amazon rainforest faces a renewed threat of deforestation as efforts grow to overturn a long-standing ban on the sale of soy grown on land cleared after 2008. This ban, known as the Amazon Soy Moratorium, has been widely credited with curbing deforestation in the region and is considered a global environmental success story.
However, powerful farming interests in Brazil, backed by a group of politicians, are now pushing to lift these restrictions. They argue the ban is an unfair "cartel" that allows a small group of companies to dominate the Amazon's soy trade. Environmental groups warn that removing the ban would "open the way for a new wave of land grabbing" to plant more soy in the world's largest rainforest.
