Brazilian Legal Amazonia (BLA)—which comprises the entirety of the Amazon Basin located in Brazil and vast adjacent swathes of the Cerrado, spanning nine states—is more than 5 million square kilometers (km2) in area and corresponds to almost 60% of the country's land mass. Almost a quarter of this area (23%) has been deforested, and over 1 million km2 are degraded, so that the region risks reaching an ecological tipping point at which ecosystems collapse and billions of tons of carbon are released into the atmosphere.

Some parts of BLA, especially borderlands of the Cerrado and the so-called "Deforestation Arc," are now net carbon emitters. Conservation of the virgin forest areas and rehabilitation of degraded areas are urgently needed, and members of the global community are taking action in this regard.

Foreign demand for commodities is often considered the main driver of deforestation. It is certainly significant, but domestic markets exert far greater pressure, according to a study by Eduardo Haddad and collaborators published in the journal Nature Sustainability.

"Deforestation is often evaluated from the supply standpoint, meaning the analysis focuses on the productive sectors that are promoting replacement of forest by other land uses, such as growing of crops and raising of livestock. The methodology we used enabled us to see the phenomenon of deforestation from the demand perspective as well, identifying the sources of the economic stimuli that get productive sectors involved in deforestation.

"Based on this criterion, our study shows that 83.17% of deforestation was driven by demand from outside Amazonia and only 16.83% by demand from the region. Breaking down that 83.17%, we found that demand from other parts of Brazil accounted for 59.68% and foreign demand for 23.49%," Haddad said.

• Read More