Beef production has been the largest driver of deforestation this century

Over the last two decades, around 128 million hectares of forest have been cleared to make way for agriculture and forest plantations. That’s an area five times the size of the United Kingdom.

What has driven this deforestation?

A recent paper estimated the contribution of different agricultural products over the last few decades. In the chart, you can see the breakdown.

Beef production has been the largest driver by far, contributing over 40% of the total. This has mostly been the clearing of forest for grazing pasture, especially across Brazil and other countries in Latin America.

Oilseeds — mostly soy and oil palm — were the second-largest driver, again concentrated in Latin America for soy and in Indonesia and Malaysia for palm oil. While deforestation for palm oil was high in the early 2000s and 2010s, it has fallen a lot in recent years.

Forest plantations have been a large driver of deforestation in North America and East Asia. Deforestation for most other products — including cereals, roots and tubers, and cash crops like cocoa and coffee — has been concentrated in Africa, where yields have not grown quickly enough to offset rising demand.

Where this page came from

This page was imported from Our World in Data. “Beef production has been the largest driver of deforestation this century” by Hannah Ritchie, published by Our World in Data under CC BY 4.0. Changed here: set as a page, its interactive charts shown as pictures. Data from third parties keeps its own licence.

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