Amazon Soy Moratorium

In December 2019, a coalition of investment institutions and global corporates exposed to the Brazilian soy sector published an open letter aimed at the Brazilian Government.

The letter calls for the protection of the ‘Amazon Soy Moratorium’, an agreement signed in 2006 to ensure that soy production in the Amazon region only occurs on existing converted agricultural land and not through deforestation of native vegetation.

Since the implementation of the Moratorium, soy-related deforestation has decreased while Amazonian soy production has increased by 400%,  showing that agricultural output can be increased while protecting tropical forests.

Investors managing over $3 trillion of assets, co-ordinated by FAIRR, have signed the letter. See the letter and full list of investor and corporate signatories below.

View the open letter and signatories

Soy demand is forecast to increase by 4% annually, mainly for livestock and farmed fish feed. The ASM is necessary to complement the Forest Code by supporting soy expansion only on existing agricultural land.

While soy produced in the Amazon is only around 10% of Brazil’s total soy production, the ASM provides reputational benefits for the whole Brazilian soy sector and its $32 billion annual trade.

The ASM benefits both Brazil and the global market in many ways. It provides an efficient solution to ensuring legal FC compliance of soy from the Amazon; attracts investment into the Brazilian soy sector; and helps protects the water cycle on which all of Brazil’s agricultural sector depends.

Without the ASM, all these benefits are at risk.