Amazon ranchers 'pushed into rainforest' by farming

Soy farming levels in Brazil is forcing ranchers to move into the Amazon rainforest, it has been claimed.

According to an article on Monga Bay, the expansion of the industrial soy farming industry is adding to deforestation by pushing cattle ranchers further into the rainforest. The site reported that this is the finding of a new study published in the journal Environmental Research
Letters.

For the research, scientists looked at census figures taken between 2000 and 2006 on deforestation, livestock populations levels and pasture area sizes to work out which parts of the rainforest are being hit the most by forest clearing.

"Their analysis found that deforestation shifted 39 kilometres to the north-east during the period," the site noted.

Cattle ranches are one of the biggest causes of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, as is illegal logging and other activity.

Monga Bay pointed out that in the 1990s, soy production in the rainforest went through a boom period.

Written by Adil Montez

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