Agricultural expansion drives vegetation loss in Amazon and Pampa

Agricultural expansion is significantly altering ecosystems across South America. In the Brazilian Amazon, soybean cultivation in metropolitan regions grew by 71% between 2017 and 2024. This shift has led to a decline in traditional food crops intended for local consumption; cassava production fell by 28%, banana by 11%, and watermelon by 51%. According to the Instituto Escolhas, soybean now occupies 62% of the planted area in these Amazonian metropolitan regions, compared to just 3% for cassava in 2017.

Simultaneously, the South American Pampa—spanning parts of Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina—has lost 11.3 million hectares of native vegetation between 1985 and 2024. A study by MapBiomas indicates that 10.5 million of these lost hectares were grassland vegetation. This environmental transformation is driven by a 33% increase in continuous crop areas, primarily for grains, and a 503% surge in planted forests. In Brazil, the expansion of soybean crops has been identified as a primary driver of native vegetation loss within the Pampa region.