Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest , and recover of degraded pastures. In August 2017, Brazilian president Michel Temer abolished an Amazonian nature reserve the size of Denmark in Brazil's northern states of Pará and Amapá. Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest The cattle sector of the Brazilian Amazon, incentivized by the international beef and leather trades, has been responsible for about 80% of all deforestation in the region, or about 14% of the world's total annual deforestation, making it the world's largest single driver of deforestation. By 2017, 20% of land forested before 1970 in the Amazon had been deforested, and 90% of that been converted
Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest rainforest destruction in the Amazon and releasing significant greenhouse gases. The annual rate of deforestation in the Amazon region dramatically increased from 1991 to 2003. In the nine years from 1991 to 2000, the total area of Amazon rainforest cleared since 1970 rose from , comparable to the land area of Spain, Madagascar or Manitoba. Most of this lost forest was replaced by pasture for cattle. Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest continued to accelerate in the early 2000s, reaching an annual rate of 27,423 km² of forest loss in the year 2004. Today the remaining forest cover continues to dwindle,