✒️ Axing the Amazon with a pen stroke

Hello! Welcome back to the Brazil Climate newsletter. This week, a law approved by state lawmakers in Mato Grosso threatens the existence of some 5.5 million hectares of Amazon forest by way of a simple rule change.

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Mato Grosso state law turns Amazon forest areas into savanna

For years, scientists have cautioned that accelerating deforestation and climate change are pushing the Amazon rainforest closer to a catastrophic transformation into a savanna-like biome. While the exact timing of this “tipping point” remains uncertain, lawmakers in Mato Grosso, a Brazilian agricultural powerhouse, appear intent on hastening its arrival through controversial legislation.

The State Assembly of Mato Grosso recently approved a law that “transforms” parts of the Brazilian Amazon forest into savanna, opening up an estimated 5.5 million hectares (about 13.6 million acres) to deforestation — an area around half the size of Louisiana.

Mato Grosso is often nicknamed “Brazil’s granary,” as the central-western state leads all others in the production of soy, beef and corn — some of the country’s biggest exports. But Mato Grosso is also home to unique biodiversity, being the only Brazilian state to include parts of the Amazon, the Cerrado tropical savanna and the Pantanal wetlands all within its borders.

And it is this duality that has defined the state’s politics over the last half-century.

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