Wikipedia

Cattle ranching in the Brazilian Amazon has been identified as the primary cause of deforestation,[5] accounting for about 80% of all deforestation in the region.[6][7] This makes it the world's largest single driver of deforestation, contributing to approximately 14% of the global annual deforestation.[8] Government tax revenue has subsidized much of the agricultural activity leading to deforestation.[9] By 1995, 70% of previously forested land in the Amazon and 91% of land deforested since 1970 had been converted for cattle ranching.[10] The remaining deforestation primarily results from small-scale subsistence agriculture[11] and mechanized cropland producing crops such as soy and palm.[12] In 2011, soy bean farming was estimated to account for around 15% of deforestation in the Amazon.[13]