Global coalition ups pressure to save Amazon Soy Moratorium

Animal feed companies and supermarkets urged to reject products linked to soy-driven deforestation, after key traders deserted the moratorium, risking millions more hectares of deforestation in the Amazon

In an open letter addressed to soy end-users in key markets, including animal feed companies and retailers, a global civil society coalition of ten organizations, including Mighty Earth, is urging collective action to uphold the Amazon Soy Moratorium (ASM) commitments and criteria. It comes after a number of key soy traders, including Cargill, Bunge, ADM, LDC, COFCO and Amaggi, deserted the moratorium last month.

The decision by soy giants to walk away from the mechanism is a major environmental setback. Weakening the ASM undermines one of the most effective tools available to prevent deforestation and exposes Amazonian ecosystems and communities to escalating climate risks. Without this mechanism, deforestation in the Amazon could increase by up to 30% by 2045 (IPAM), and destroy millions more hectares of rainforest, roughly the size of Portugal. 

For two decades the ASM has worked by redirecting soy expansion toward already converted lands and away from native forests, even as soy cultivation in the biome expanded according to ABIOVE more than fourfold. Its potential collapse would trigger significant direct and indirect deforestation, threatening biodiversity, climate stability and rural livelihoods. It would also accelerate climate crises and hamper soy-users from reaching their anti-deforestation commitments and climate targets. Without a strong and coordinated response by the soy buyers market, the Amazon rainforest is being pushed every closer to ecosystem collapse.

Boris Patentreger, Nature and Deforestation Campaign Lead at Mighty Earth said: 

“The Amazon cannot be sacrificed for profit. It’s time for food companies, including retailers and animal feed companies, that have relied on traders to uphold the moratorium, to mobilize. That means stepping up at this pivotal time to reject meat and dairy products linked to soy-driven deforestation and integrating the moratorium’s criteria into their policies to prevent the Amazon rainforest, which we all rely on to cool our rapidly warming world, from collapsing.”

Ingrid Tungen, head of Deforestation-free markets at Rainforest Foundation Norway said:

“The Soy Moratorium has given the market confidence that Brazilian soy is not driving Amazon destruction. Weakening the moratorium raises legal and reputational risks for end consumer countries like Norway, which sources Brazilian soy while promoting sectors such as aquaculture as sustainable.”

Mathew Jacobson, campaign director at Stand.earth said : 

“Abandoning the Soy Moratorium would reward deforestation and undermine decades of progress. Traders have both the power and the responsibility to uphold its standards and ensure soy expansion does not drive further forest loss.”

Mauricio Voivodic, executive director at WWF Brazil said : 

“It is unacceptable that companies have yielded to political pressure in exchange for public resources, abandoning a commitment that for years enabled the expansion of agricultural production in a responsible manner. By choosing tax incentives over the Soy Moratorium, these companies validate an alarming scenario: Mato Grosso once again moves against the tide, being the only state in the Legal Amazon to record an increase in deforestation according to PRODES. The decision to prioritize immediate profit over protecting a biome that has already exceeded its resilience limits was deliberate. And the consequences of this setback go far beyond the environmental agenda: they affect water security and the stability of agribusiness, which already suffers from extreme climate events resulting from forest loss. By weakening environmental safeguards, Brazil sends the world, including major buyers such as Europe and China, a signal of misalignment with new sustainability requirements, tarnishing the image of national soy, making it harder to meet international climate targets, and compromising the sector’s long-term economic viability.”

The coalition is calling on soy end-users to: 

• Continue to uphold ASM commitments and reaffirm that they will not accept animal products linked to soy-driven Amazon deforestation;
• Clearly integrate into company policy the 2008 deforestation cut-off date, full farm-level traceability, and the rejection of both legal and illegal deforestation;
• Collectively call on traders to uphold the criteria of the moratorium through CEO-to-CEO letters.

Ends

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Boris Patentreger, Nature and Deforestation Campaign Lead at Mighty Earth (Paris)
[email protected]
+33 7 7607 4419

Carole Mitchell, Global Director of Communications at Mighty Earth (London)
[email protected]
+44 7917 105000

Notes to editors

Letter in full here:

Urgent Call to All Soy End-Users, Meat & Dairy Companies, and Market Actors: Uphold the Amazon Soy Moratorium

We, signatories of this open letter, publicly and urgently call on direct and indirect soy buyers to ensure that their soy supply chains are free from deforestation and conversion of native vegetation and from traders that do not comply with the criteria of the Amazon Soy Moratorium. This open letter is addressed to all soy end-users, including meat and dairy companies, animal feed producers, retailers, financial institutions, and market operators across Europe, North and South America, and China.Their responsibility is now pivotal.

At a decisive moment marked by political backsliding on the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and an unprecedented move to undermine the Amazon Soy Moratorium (ASM), direct and indirect soy users can no longer remain on the sidelines. Your decisions and expectations will determine whether nearly two decades of progress in protecting the Amazon are preserved — or undone.

As major soy traders announce their exit from the ASM, we face a critical risk of reversing hard-won gains in reducing deforestation in the Amazon. The ASM — a voluntary commitment not to source soy from land in the Amazon biome deforested after July 2008, which many international institutions, soy buyers and financial actors committed to uphold — has long been recognized as one of the most effective mechanisms for aligning soy supply chains with climate and sustainability objectives.

In early January, ABIOVE, an association representing several leading commodity traders — including ADM, Amaggi, Bunge, Cargill, COFCO, and Louis Dreyfus Company — announced their withdrawal following recent policy changes in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, which removed tax incentives for new project investments with environmental criteria considered to be beyond Brazil’s legislation.

This decision constitutes a serious environmental setback. Weakening the ASM undermines one of the most effective tools available to prevent deforestation and exposes Amazonian ecosystems and communities to escalating climate risks. Without this mechanism, deforestation in the Amazon could increase by up to 30% by 2045 (IPAM). Ending the Moratorium would dismantle a monitoring system that also effectively targets illegal deforestation, as most non-compliant farms lack proper permits and violate the Forest Code, increasing legal and economic risks across supply chains.

Nearly two decades of evidence demonstrate that the ASM has worked by redirecting soy expansion toward already converted lands and away from native forests, even as soy cultivation in the biome expanded according to ABIOVE more than fourfold. Its potential collapse would trigger significant direct and indirect deforestation, threatening biodiversity, climate stability and rural livelihoods. It would also accelerate climate crises and hamper soy-users from reaching their anti-deforestation commitments and climate targets. Without a strong and coordinated response by the soy buyers market, the Amazon itself is at risk.

The ASM is a valuable tool that helps set the standards increasingly expected by key legislation such as the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), supporting businesses to meet their due diligence obligations and reduce deforestation risk in soy supply chains. For years, soy buyers and financial institutions have supported the ASM by delegating its implementation to traders, effectively taking the mechanism for granted. As a result, it has been left vulnerable to shifts in political will and insufficiently supported to evolve and become formalised, limiting its ability to ensure long-term forest protection while supporting broader landscape-level incentives. That moment has passed. Leadership now requires buyers to state clearly what they will and will not accept in their supply chains. We signatories of this letter will be monitoring this closely.

We call on all soy end-users to demonstrate leadership and urgency by:

• Continuing to uphold ASM commitments and reaffirming that you will not accept animal products linked to soy-driven Amazon deforestation;
• Clearly integrating into company policy the 2008 deforestation cut-off date, full farm-level traceability, and the rejection of both legal and illegal deforestation;
• collectively calling on traders to uphold the criteria of the moratorium through CEO-to-CEO letters.

The actions taken now will determine whether large-scale soy-driven deforestation re-emerges or whether the Amazon is protected at this critical juncture.

This is a pivotal moment for corporate responsibility in soy supply chains. At a time when protection should be extended to other biomes, such as the Cerrado, scaling back corporate commitments to the Amazon is unacceptable. Taking decisive action to uphold the Amazon Soy Moratorium is not only fully consistent with your environmental commitments but also crucial for safeguarding one of the world’s most vital ecosystems for climate regulation and biodiversity.

The choice is clear: act now to uphold the Amazon Soy Moratorium, or let political and commercial pressures dismantle it. This backsliding is only the beginning — a firm, coordinated response is needed to send a clear signal that reversals will not be tolerated.

Together for the Amazon,

Signed by: 

• Mighty Earth
• Global Witness
• Greenpeace Brazil
• Rainforest Foundation Norway
• Imaflora
• ICV
• Envol Vert
• Canopée Forêts Vivantes
• WWF-Brazil
• Stand.earth

About Mighty Earth

Mighty Earth is a global advocacy organization working to defend a living planet.  Our goal is to protect Nature and secure a climate that allows life to flourish.  Our team has achieved transformative change by persuading leading industries to dramatically reduce deforestation and climate pollution throughout their global supply chains in palm oil, rubber, cocoa, and animal feed, while improving livelihoods for Indigenous and local communities across the tropics.  www.mightyearth.org