Brazilian Beef Drives Quarter of Global
A new study finds beef production caused 41% of global deforestation from 2001 to 2023, with Brazilian beef alone responsible for a quarter of the total.
Beef production accounted for 41% of all global deforestation between 2001 and 2023. Almost two-thirds of that forest loss happened in Brazil, meaning Brazilian beef alone is linked to a quarter of the world's total deforestation over that period.
These findings come from an analysis by Our World in Data, based on research from Chalmers University of Technology. The pasture expansion for cattle has primarily destroyed parts of the Amazon rainforest and the Cerrado savanna.
Domestic Demand Drives Majority of Loss
Trade data from 2005 to 2023 reveals a striking pattern. Roughly 85% of the deforestation tied to Brazilian agricultural production is attributed to domestic consumption. Export markets account for only 15% of the total.
That 15% is spread across many international buyers. China and the United States are the largest importers, but no single foreign market dominates. Brazilian per capita beef consumption has doubled in the last fifty years. It now sits at about three times the average rate in Europe.
The DeDuCE Model and Broader Findings
The underlying data comes from the Deforestation Driver and Carbon Emission (DeDuCE) model. Researchers Chandrakant Singh and Martin Persson at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden developed it.
Their study, published in Nature Food in February 2026, analyzed 184 commodities across 179 countries. It created over 9,300 country-commodity footprints. The model also quantified the climate impact of this land clearing.
Agriculture-driven deforestation released approximately 41 billion tonnes of CO2 between 2001 and 2022. That equals about 5% of total global carbon dioxide emissions for the period. The research compared the deforestation footprint of different crops.
| Commodity Group | Share of Agriculture-Driven Deforestation |
|---|---|
| Beef | 41% |
| Maize, Rice, Cassava (combined) | ~11% |
| Cocoa, Coffee, Rubber (combined) | Less than half of the above group |
Initiatives Aim to Shift Land Use
Efforts to tackle the domestic drivers of deforestation in Brazil are gaining visibility. One project, ProVeg Brazil’s Cultiva Project, supports livestock producers.
It provides agronomic, legal, and marketing help for converting land to plant-based agroforestry systems. Research coordinated by the project and the Agroecology Cooperative Organization was presented at COP30 in Belém.
That research found net income per hectare could increase by 110%. Where low-productivity cattle ranching is replaced, the income rise could reach 1,525%.
Martin Persson, co-author of the Chalmers study, emphasized the need for a dual focus. “The debate on deforestation has circulated a lot around how people in rich countries like ours cause deforestation with our commodities imports, and this is absolutely important to get to grips with,” he said. “But we mustn’t forget that a large proportion of deforestation is driven by agricultural production for domestic markets.”
The analysis notes that looking only at the most recent years yields a comparable result to the two-decade trend. This indicates the pattern of beef-driven deforestation in Brazil is not a relic of the early 2000s but a persistent issue.
