In 2006, Brazil established the soy moratorium, a voluntary agreement under which commodity traders committed to not purchasing soybeans cultivated in areas of the Brazilian Amazon that were deforested after 2006 (later revised to 2008) (1). Although the soy moratorium has successfully reduced Amazon forest clearing for soy (1, 2), Brazil’s competition authority [Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica (CADE)] deemed the arrangement “anticompetitive” in 2025 (3), and state governments have imposed regulatory sanctions prompting the withdrawal of major soy traders from the agreement (4). Weakening the moratorium is a brazen assault on efforts to control deforestation. Instead, Brazil should strengthen multilateral partnerships between businesses and governments for the sake of forest conservation.
