This aerial view shows deforested areas in the Amazon rainforest in the municipality of Nova Esperanca do Piria, Para State, Brazil.
The collapse of a landmark Amazon soy pact will drive at least 1.4 million hectares (3.5 million acres) of extra deforestation in Brazil over the next decade, releasing carbon emissions equal to Canada's annual output, according to an analysis published Thursday.
The paper, published in Science, examined the rise and fall of the Amazon Soy Moratorium—one of the world's most successful voluntary deforestation commitments—under which soy traders agreed not to source or finance soy grown on land deforested after July 2008.
When the moratorium began in 2006, nearly a third of annual soy expansion came from deforestation. After it took effect, deforestation linked to new soy fields fell to nearly zero.
"It generated very positive effects and results," not only environmentally but also by opening new markets, co-author Tiago Reis of World Wildlife Fund-Brazil told AFP.
