Between 2018 and 2022, the Amazon rainforest suffered a dramatic decline: 8.6 million hectares were destroyed—an area larger than Austria. This rapid loss accounted for 36% of global deforestation, confirming the Amazon as the core of the crisis. The main driver is the expansion of cattle ranching, responsible for 78% of cleared areas, followed by soy cultivation (4.6%). While Brazil’s central-eastern Amazon is dominated by pasture expansion, the western region—Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador—shows rapid growth in corn, oil palm, and other industrial crops.
Europe among the major indirect contributors
Amazon deforestation is not only a South American issue: global supply chains and consumption patterns in wealthy regions strongly influence it. According to the latest data, between 2020 and 2022 the European Union was responsible on average for 20% of deforestation linked to specific commodities, particularly soy, corn and cocoa.
Italy also ranks among the countries with the greatest impact: to meet domestic demand, every year 4,000 hectares of Amazon forest—around 5,000 football fields—are cleared, equal to 10% of the annual embedded deforestation associated with Italian consumption.
The new Amazon Footprint Report 2025 presented at Cop30
These figures come from the “Amazon Footprint Report 2025”, unveiled at Cop30 in Belém by WWF, Trase, Chalmers University of Technology, and the Stockholm Environment Institute. It is the first cross-border analysis examining Amazon deforestation and its links to global agricultural supply chains.
The report shows that the Amazon has already lost 17% of its original forest cover, and highlights how its fate is tied to consumer markets worldwide. The authors call for an urgent transformation of supply chains, prioritising transparency and sustainability to avoid the most severe climate scenarios and protect biodiversity and human well-being.
WWF: “The EU must not delay its anti-deforestation regulation”
According to WWF Italy, the European Union must stay on course: delays or weakening of the anti-deforestation law would be a significant setback. Despite the EU presenting itself as a defender of the Amazon at Cop30, some member states are pushing to soften the regulation.
Edoardo Nevola, head of WWF Italy’s Forest Office, describes the EUDR as “the most effective tool” for Europe to take responsibility. Any postponement—he warns—would undermine Europe’s credibility, just as international negotiations aim to halt deforestation and climate change.
The cost of a delay: 50 million trees lost and new emissions
According to WWF, a one-year delay in implementing the EUDR would result in the loss of 50 million trees and 16.8 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to the combined emissions of London and New York over three years. That is the environmental footprint of one year of EU consumption.
EUDR: new deadlines for “deforestation-free” products
The EU’s “deforestation-free” regulation, in force since 29 June 2023, has already been postponed once, with operational application moved to December 2024. The rules will now apply from 30 December 2025 for medium and large companies, and from 30 June 2026 for small and micro-enterprises.
The objective is to drastically limit deforestation linked to European consumption. Businesses must prove that products such as beef, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soy, timber and rubber do not originate from land that has been cleared, degraded, or exploited illegally.