The Moratorium on soy in Brazil is extended

During the last ten years, the moratorium on soy has been one of the key initiatives in Brazil’s fight towards reducing deforestation. The moratorium blocks companies from producing and selling soybeans that contribute to deforestation in the Amazon.

- This good news from Brazil means that future Brazilian soy production can be done without harming the Amazon rainforest. This is great for the rainforest, but also for the private sector wanting sustainable production and sales of soy from Brazil, says the Norwegian Minister for Climate and the Environment, Vidar Helgesen.

On Monday, the Brazilian Minister for Climate, Izabella Teixeira, together with ABIOVE and Greenpeace, announced that the 2006 moratorium on soy will be extended, this time indefinitely.

The moratorium on soy is seen as one of the most efficient measures against deforestation in the Amazon. Deforestation as a result of soy production today accounts for less than 1 percent of the total Amazon deforestation, according to Brazil’s National Space Institute (INPE).

In total, the moratorium covers 4 million km2, an area ten times the size of Norway.

In 2008, Norway committed up to 6 billion kroner (NOK)  to the Amazon Fund, if Brazil reduced the rate of deforestation in the Amazon. Preliminary data show that Brazil has reduced deforestation by nearly 60 percent. 

Read more about the agreement between Norway and Brazil.