Beef production in Brazil has been the largest driver of global deforestation in recent decades

Since the turn of the century, an area of forest five times the size of my home country, the United Kingdom, has been cut down to free up land for farming.1

If we want to reduce — and ultimately end — deforestation, we need to know what’s causing it, and where.

When we look at the largest drivers of this deforestation, beef production is the standout. The clearing of forests to make space for grazing pastures has driven 41% of global deforestation in recent decades.2

Where has this happened? Mostly in Brazil. Almost two-thirds of it has taken place there, as you can see in the chart below. That means one-quarter of global deforestation is caused by beef production in Brazil.

The expansion of cattle pastures has not just come at the expense of natural forests, but particularly of biodiverse regions in the Amazon rainforest and Cerrado savanna.