In the study Amazon Footprint Report 2025, released in connection with the COP30 climate meeting, the researchers used satellite images of land use in the Amazon and linked these with data on agricultural production and trade flows.
Martin Persson, assistant professor at Chalmers and one of the report's authors, believes that it broadens the picture of the threat to the rainforest.
"This is the most comprehensive study of what drives Amazon deforestation to date. Partly because it geographically goes down to a very local level – in many cases right down to the municipal level – and partly because it includes all agricultural production in the region and the connection to both local and global consumption," he writes in a press release.
According to the report, the expansion of cattle farming contributes most to deforestation, followed by soy farming. However, for Sweden, coffee consumption is estimated to have had a greater impact on Amazon deforestation for several years than soy consumption.
According to the latest measurement from 2022, coffee has now also surpassed beef in the table and is thus the imported product that has the most impact on deforestation.
In 2022, Swedish coffee consumption contributed to the deforestation of 331 hectares of rainforest in the Amazon. The corresponding figure for beef is 236 hectares.
“Globally, there has been a lot of focus on the impact of soy production and livestock farming on deforestation, so coffee consumption may have flown a little under the radar,” says Martin Persson.
