Climate & Environment
Soy Moratorium
Definition
The Soy Moratorium is a voluntary agreement, signed in 2006 by major soybean traders (ABCD companies and others) following Greenpeace's "Eating Up the Amazon" campaign, under which signatories commit not to purchase soy grown on land in the Brazilian Amazon biome deforested after a cut-off date (later set at 2008). Monitoring uses satellite data to check farms; studies credit the moratorium with a dramatic reduction in soy-driven deforestation in the Amazon biome, making it the most cited success of private supply chain governance.
References
This reference provides supporting context for how “Soy Moratorium” is defined and used.
Source imported for editorial provenance.
Overview
How it is used
The agreement structures Brazilian soy trade compliance, and serves as the model and cautionary tale for zero-deforestation commodity initiatives in cattle, palm oil and cocoa.
Why it matters
The Soy Moratorium is the proof of concept — and the boundary marker — of private zero-deforestation governance.