<P> Until 2006, a major driver of forest loss in the Amazon was the cultivation of soy, mainly for export and production of biodiesel and animal feed; as soybean prices have risen, soy farmers pushed northwards into forested areas of the Amazon . However, a private sector agreement referred to as the Soy Moratorium has helped drastically reduce the deforestation linked to soy production in the region . In 2006, a number of major commodity trading companies such as Cargill agreed to not purchase soybeans produced in the Brazilian Amazon in recently deforested areas . Before the moratorium, 30 percent of soy field expansion had occurred through deforestation, contributing to record deforestation rates . After eight years of the moratorium, a 2015 study found that although soy production area had expanded another 1.3 million hectares, only about 1 percent of the new soy expansion had come at the expense of forest . In response to the moratorium, farmers were choosing to plant on already cleared land . </P> <P> The needs of soy farmers have been used to validate some controversial transportation projects that have developed in the Amazon . The first two highways, the Belém - Brasília (1958) and the Cuiaba - Porto Velho (1968), were the only federal highways in the Legal Amazon to be paved and passable year - round before the late 1990s . These two highways are said to be "at the heart of the' arc of deforestation"', which at present is the focal point area of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon . The Belém - Brasília highway attracted nearly two million settlers in the first twenty years . The success of the Belém - Brasília highway in opening up the forest was reenacted as paved roads continued to be developed, unleashing the irrepressible spread of settlement . The completion of the roads was followed by a wave of resettlement; these settlers had a significant effect on the forest as well . </P> <P> Research conducted by Leydimere Oliveira et al. has shown that the more rainforest is logged in the Amazon, the less precipitation reaches the area and so the lower the yield per hectare becomes . Thus for Brazil as a whole, there is no economic gain to be made by logging and selling trees and using the logged land for pastoral purposes . </P> <P> A September 2016 Amazon Watch report concludes that imports of crude oil by the US are driving rainforest destruction in the Amazon and releasing significant greenhouse gases . </P>

Who is involved in the deforestation of the amazon