Cattle ranching can coexist, on a small scale and without deforestation, legal or illegal, if it is developed by adapting productive efficiency practices, or in agroforestry or Crop-Livestock-Forest Integration systems. In addition, it must consider the local labor force and be fairly remunerated, respecting the territorial rights of the Amazonian peoples and communities. However, the sustainable model, compared to current ones, contributes to reducing negative environmental impacts, such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the atmosphere.

Unsustainable cattle ranching has grown rapidly in the Amazon, stimulated by government policies and market demand. As a result, deforestation, linked to this and other factors, is one of the main socio-environmental problems in Brazil and the world. In addition to deforestation, the destruction of the Amazon brings with it an increase in fires, conflicts with indigenous peoples and land grabbing.

Deforestation of the world’s most biodiverse forest for agriculture, especially soybean monoculture, is another major threat to the region and has increased exponentially. Crops threaten the permanence of species through loss of habitat and intensive use of pesticides – which also contaminate soil and water. On the other hand, the expansion of monocultures also generates territorial conflicts and violations of the rights of traditional peoples and populations, as well as the loss of culturally relevant species in the region.

The construction of infrastructure works such as poorly planned highways that only benefit large producers, hydroelectric power plants and mines for mineral and gold extraction, especially illegal ones, threaten the lives of people and species in the Amazon rainforest, causing water and soil contamination, conflicts and violations of the rights of traditional peoples and populations.