This briefing investigates logging companies who are exporting the vast majority of wood from the port of Santarém in Para State in the eastern Amazon, and presents the evidence that all are involved in illegal and sometimes destructive logging.

The Amazon rainforest is home to the most diverse ecosystem on earth, as well as millions of indigenous peoples. It is under grave threat from being cleared and burned primarily for cattle pastures. Deforestation not only destroys biodiversity...

This map shows the extent to which cattle pasture is the main use of deforested land in Mato Grosso.

This map shows how the main roads which opened up in the1970s link with extensive networks of unofficial roads (not shown on official charts) has led to cattle ranching expanding into remote areas, hundreds of kilometres from slaughterhouses.

Original vegetation in the state of Mato Grosso. 185, 587km² (an area twice the size of Hungary) of the once lush rainforest in the state of Mato Grosso has so far been destroyed, primarily because of cattle expansion.

Between 1996 and 2006 the area of cattle pastures in the Brazilian Amazon grew by approximately 10 million hectares – an area about the size of Iceland.

This map shows the extent of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.