Cattle ranching is the leading cause of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. In Brazil, this has been the case since at least the 1970s.

Soybean developed by Brazilian scientists to flourish in rainforest climate emerged as one of the most important contributors to deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon from the 1990s through the mid-2000s.

Logging in the Amazon is controlled by strict licensing which allows timber to be harvested only in designated areas, but illegal logging still remained widespread in Brazil and Peru.