New evidence that the rapid expansion of Brazil's export-fuelled agriculture sector is contributing to the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest is emerging from a study being finalised by a group of leading environmental organisations.
However there are indications that the government may have indeed become more aware of the problem after years of denying such links.
Soyabean farming, the leading crop, has expanded by more than 50 per cent since 2001 and earned Brazil more than $10bn (€7.5bn, ?5.3bn) in foreign exchange last year. While soyabean farmers do not usually clear forest themselves, the authors of the report say, they fuel deforestation by driving cattle and rice farmers deeper into the forest.
“Soyabean farming induces deforestation, it drives the agricultural frontier,” said Roberto Smeraldi, co-ordinator of the study conducted by the Brazilian Forum of 19 environmental organisations, including the WWF, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.

Wary of environmental restrictions and international criticism, the powerful farm lobby and parts of the government for years rejected links between large-scale, mechanised agriculture and degradation in the world's largest rainforest.
This week, Ipea, a government think-tank, argued that most soyabean production growth in recent years came from the expansion of existing farmland and the conversion of pastureland, not rainforest. Preparing forest for (soyabean) farming “requires time and infrastructure”, the report said.
However, using aerial photography, the environmental groups showed that forest cleared in northern Matto Grosso state last year had been planted with soyabeans very soon afterwards. At the same time the area of cattle and rice farms in previously forested areas nearby actually increased, apparently displaced by soyabean farms.
The researchers admit that the region may not reflect the entire Amazon region but many environmentalists are concerned that the advance of agriculture into the Amazon may spread. “The objective of the study was to make authorities aware of the problem and work with them towards solutions,” said André Lima, co-author of the study and forestry co-ordinator with the Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA) in Brasilia.
Roberto Rodrigues, agriculture minister, has now appointed a special adviser on Amazon affairs and produced a white paper including proposals such as higher taxes on legal deforestation and environmental criteria on farm loans.
The government is also working on a map of land usage in the Amazon to better regulate farming. Some environmentalists are calling on traders to voluntarily adopt environmental criteria when they purchase grains.