Close up of a plantation of soy beans ready for harvest. © Andre Dib / WWF Brazil
Brazil’s Amazon Soy Moratorium (ASM) is a sectoral agreement under which commodities traders agreed to avoid the purchase of soybeans from areas that were deforested after 2008. The ASM was first implemented in 2006 following a provocative Greenpeace campaign that called attention to the role of soybean expansion in Amazon deforestation. The agreement was renewed every 1-2 years until 2016, when it was implemented "indefinitely." The objective of the ASM is to eliminate deforestation from Amazon soybean supply chains and there is a general consensus that it has been successful in this respect, as less than 2% of the total soy area in the 2018/19 crop year was non-compliant with the ASM. Furthermore, studies have shown that the ASM contributed to the reduction of overall Amazon deforestation rates.
Download the full case study via the link to the right to learn more about the implementation process of the ASM and its outcomes.
This case study is part of our deep-dive into responses to address deforestation, highlighted in WWF's report, Deforestation fronts: Drivers and responses in a changing world.
