Editor’s choice
Editor’s choice
This dataset provides insights into deforestation and land conversion linked to Brazilian soy production and exports. It highlights deforestation hotspots, market exposure, and implications for policy, trade and sustainability commitments.
This dataset contains detailed records of Brazilian soy exports and associated rates of deforestation and conversion across key biomes, including the Cerrado, Pampas, Amazon and Atlantic Rainforest for the period 2020–2022. The data are produced by integrating Trase’s supply chain mapping with MapBiomas land-use data, enhanced by peer-reviewed methodologies. It offers insights into the relationship between international commodity markets, trader supply chains and environmental degradation in Brazil, highlighting deforestation hotspots and traders most exposed to deforestation risks.
Data can be used by researchers, policymakers and companies to evaluate compliance with zero-deforestation commitments (ZDCs), inform policy (such as the EU deforestation regulation) and guide sustainability strategies in global supply chains. The dataset, however, has limitations, such as incomplete trade data for certain municipalities (approximately 15–18% of soy traded). Data are accessible via Trase’s platform in machine-readable formats (CSV) and associated mapping visualizations.
Relevant ongoing research includes updates to regional and biome-specific deforestation estimates and the impact of regulatory measures on trade flows.
This dataset informs policymakers, particularly in relation to the implementation and enforcement of the EU deforestation regulation (EUDR). Policymakers can identify subnational regions in Brazil that represent high deforestation risks and target enforcement efforts accordingly.
Examples include detailed municipality-level risk assessments that could help in regulatory compliance and targeted supply chain interventions.
For researchers, this dataset provides comprehensive data to study deforestation drivers, environmental governance effectiveness (e.g. Amazon Soy Moratorium) and climate impacts from land-use changes. It supports comparative studies of deforestation exposure among traders and importing markets, highlighting research gaps such as improving traceability of unknown-source soy flows.
This dataset was developed to enhance transparency of soy-driven deforestation in Brazil. Trase integrates export data from publicly available trade records, MapBiomas land-use change analysis and peer-reviewed methods. External data sources include the Brazilian government, industry records and satellite-based land-use monitoring by MapBiomas. Data quality assurance protocols involve peer review, methodological transparency and continual refinement to improve accuracy (e.g. latest MapBiomas methodology capturing grassland conversion). Key assumptions include estimating deforestation exposure for unknown soy sources by assigning averages from known municipalities. Robustness and uncertainty management methods are detailed in Trase’s methodological document:
Trase. (2025). SEI-PCS Brazil soy v2.6 supply chain map: Data sources and methods. Trase. https://doi.org/10.48650/X24R-YK29
To reference this article, use the following citation:>Pereira, O., & Bernasconi, P. (2025). Brazilian soy exports and deforestation. Trase. https://doi.org/10.48650/Q48G-MJ07
The authors thank the researchers and data scientists who have contributed to this analysis: Harry Biddle, Florian Gollnow, Michael Lathuillière, Nicolás Martín, Carina Mueller, Vivian Ribeiro and Clément Suavet.
Trase collaborates with the MapBiomas Project and multiple research institutions to generate this dataset. Trase is a not-for-profit partnership founded in 2015 by SEI and Global Canopy in close collaboration with many others.
