The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Soy in the Amazon © SECOM-MT

Conversion to agriculture and cattle ranching is the greatest threat to the Amazon rainforest. At the current rate, scientists predict that more than half of the Amazon could be cleared or severely degraded within decades.

The Conservancy believes that the key to reverse this trend and reconcile the demand for production with conservation is an extraordinarily prescient Brazilian law - the Forest Code, which says that, in the Amazon, farmers and ranchers should retain 80% of their lands under native vegetation.

What we are doing

Our work is founded on creating realistic incentives for compliance with the law. We work in several municipalities in the Brazilian Amazon, some of them with the highest deforestation rates in the region:

• In Santarém, we worked with Cargill to help 158 soy farmers register their farms, spanning 300,000 acres.
• In Paragominas, the Conservancy and partners launched the project Paragominas: Green Municipality. As a result of our work there, Paragominas was recently removed of the list of top deforesters in the Brazilian Amazon.
• In São Félix do Xingu, we are forging partnerships to promote responsible beef sourcing. This work is laying the groundwork for a pilot REDD project in São Felix.

The Conservancy is rapidly becoming known as the organization in Brazil that can enable all levels of Brazilian government to enforce the country’s Forest Code.

We will continue to collaborate with the local government to improve its environmental monitoring system for implementation of Brazil’s Forest Code.