Cattle Ranching in the Rainforest

After thorough research, I have found the leading cause of deforestation in the Amazon Rain forest is cattle ranching. Ranching is usually done on a 1,000 or more acres of land, and hosts horses and cows that are raised and grazed on. Farmers started burning and cutting down parts of the rain forest in the 1970s, this gave Brazil the largest commercial cattle herd in the world.
"Since 2003, Brazil has topped the world's beef export charts and the government plans to double its share of the market by 2018" (Source).

Today, the situation is getting worse. According to CIFOR, "between 1990 and 2001 the percentage of Europe's processed meat imports that came from Brazil rose from 40 to 74 percent" and by 2003 "for the first time ever, the growth in Brazilian cattle production—80 percent of which was in the Amazon—was largely export driven."

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Some Rain forest activists have suggested that agricultural certification could help reduce clearing for cattle pasture. "Some environmental groups have opted to cooperate with landowners rather than continue to fight a losing battle. This type of cooperation originated with the logging industry, where furniture makers buying sustainably-harvested wood could hawk their environmentally friendly products to green consumers. Select ranchers are now working to adapt this approach to the agricultural industry which does even more harm to the rain forest than plain logging. One environmental group, the Nature Conservancy, announced an agreement where Cargill, a large agriculture company in the United States, will buy soya only from farmers who obey the Brazilian conservation laws or those working towards compliance" (Source).

In 2004 Alianca da Terra, which translates to land alliance in English, was put into play by American-born cattle rancher John Carter. Because of this organization, all Brazilian agricultural products carry a seal that reflects health, environmental and social standards. Alianca da Terra seeks market based solutions to slow the deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon. The alliance provides economic incentives to encourage farmers and ranchers in the rain forest to practice sustainable forest management. Some of the programs include a registry of landowners who practice sustainable forest management and a product certification for beef produced from environmentally friendly cattle ranchers. Since this organization has been in effect I hope it has greatly reduced the amount of land being cleared in the rain forest.