Amazon rainforest major threat to the Amazon rainforest. The highway still has not been completed, limiting the environmental damage. Between 1991 and 2000, the total area of forest lost in the Amazon rose from , with most of the lost forest becoming pasture for cattle. Seventy percent of formerly forested land in the Amazon, and 91% of land deforested since 1970, is used for livestock pasture. Currently, Brazil is the second-largest global producer of soybeans after the United States. New research however, conducted by Leydimere Oliveira et al., has shown that the more rainforest is logged in the Amazon, the less precipitation
Birds of the Amazon birds that breed in the northern and southern hemisphere but migrate to the Amazon rainforest for food and shelter that are not available at their breeding places during cold months. Migrating birds greatly rely on rainforests for food, rest and recovery after their dangerous migration during which they can lose 30% of their body weight. Since the 1970s, cattle pasture has been the leading cause of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Land is often cleared for investment purposes due to pastureland prices exceeding forest land prices. In this case, large amounts of forest are torn down and replaced with savanna