While we are far from being out of the woods, last week?s announcement from Nike and today?s extension of the moratorium on soya linked to Amazon destruction will help to protect the Amazon and help in the fight against climate change for another year.
A few years ago, rising international demand for soya had led farmers to drive Amazon deforestation to make room for soya cultivation. In 2006, we published ?Eating up the Amazon?, a report on our investigation into the links between soya in the supply chains of leading international food companies and the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Responding to the pressure that followed, the major soya traders operating in Brazil announced a two-year moratorium, which came into effect in July 2006, dramatically decreasing the trade in soya grown on newly deforested land in the Amazon. Three years have not been long enough to establish permanent solutions to halt deforestation related to soya farming, and without an extension much of the hard work done to date would have been lost.
The announcement of the soya moratorium extension was attended by the Brazilian environment minister Carlos Minc and the Soya Working Group. The European companies that supported its establishment in 2006, so that they could guarantee soya linked to Amazon destruction did not end up in their products, also praised the extension.
The soya moratorium is a great help in the fight to protect the Amazon but we weren?t ready to rest easy just yet. Just two months ago, our most recent exposé showed how the Brazilian cattle industry is contributing to the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Shortly after the release of 'Slaughtering the Amazon', it seemed like everyone wanted out of the dirty business as major global companies and the World Bank began to sever their links with the slaughterhouses and farms involved. Read more about the how goverment and business' reacted in the weeks following "Slaughtering the Amazon."