Land Sparing Pushes Deforestation to Bolivia's San Ignacio

The world continues to warm, global emissions are still rising, and people are demanding action. The UN climate talks were held in the Amazon for the first time, highlighting the rainforest and its inhabitants. However, the host nation, Brazil, presents a significant contradiction: it has become a global agricultural powerhouse while also being celebrated for its conservation efforts.

Brazil has transformed into a "supermarket of the world" over the last 40 years, building one of the most powerful agricultural economies based on soybeans, beef, and corn. This growth has historically depended on clearing land. Yet, Brazil has also seen a significant reduction in tropical rainforest loss, with a 41% drop in 2025 alone. This raises the question of how both realities can coexist, especially as the demand for these commodities and the profits derived from them remain high.

With stricter law enforcement against deforestation within Brazil, Brazilian producers appear to be shifting their operations. This investigation focuses on Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia's economic powerhouse and a major deforestation hotspot, to understand where the pressure from Brazil's crackdown on deforestation is being redirected.

Land Sparing and Its Unintended Consequences

Brazil champions "land sparing" as a solution, a strategy that promotes maximizing production on existing farmland to prevent clearing new forests. However, a different reality emerges near the border. Brazil's agricultural heartland is expanding directly into San Ignacio de Velasco, Bolivia, which has become a new hotspot for forest loss. Critics argue that land sparing has not eliminated deforestation but merely displaced it. The stakes are incredibly high, as the Amazon, the world's largest rainforest, plays a critical role in regulating the global climate, and its destruction would be catastrophic.

The Transformation of San Ignacio de Velasco

San Ignacio de Velasco is the ancestral homeland of the Chiquitanos, Bolivia's indigenous people. The region is rapidly changing from subsistence farming to large-scale industrial agriculture, threatening local traditions and the ecosystem. This pressure is intensifying with a new administration planning to significantly expand the country's agricultural output.

Data on foreign investment in Bolivian land is sensitive due to constitutional restrictions on foreign land ownership. Despite these challenges, there is a significant presence of Brazilian farmers in San Ignacio. The road to San Ignacio reveals a landscape already transformed by soybeans, Bolivia's top agricultural export and a primary driver of deforestation, with three-quarters of it destined for animal feed. The native landscape in this part of the Amazon basin is becoming unrecognizable.

Confidential Meetings and Brazilian Investment

A closed-door meeting in San Ignacio between Brazilian producers and ministers from both countries has raised concerns. The discussions were confidential, but their outcomes could have serious environmental consequences. The meeting involved the Brazilian Minister of Agriculture and two Bolivian ministers, with the aim of understanding the demands of Brazilian ministers and the extent of Brazilian farmer participation to gauge future deforestation and agricultural expansion in the region.

Fabiano Maisonnave, the reporter, learned that Eraí Maggi Scheffer, one of the world's largest soybean producers, attended this meeting. Maggi reportedly met with the new Bolivian president for two hours and expressed plans to invest in Bolivia, particularly in this region. To facilitate this, there is a push for a new highway connecting Brazil and Bolivia. Historically, over 90% of deforestation in the Amazon occurs along highways, making this development a significant concern for environmental protection.

Rancho Dorado: A Glimpse into the Future

Rancho Dorado, a Brazilian-owned property that hosted the ministerial talks, offers a look into the potential scale of Brazilian investment. It is an impressive operation with 210 on-site employees, a private school, and significant expansion plans. The industrial scale agriculture observed at Rancho Dorado is reminiscent of Brazil's Mato Grosso, where Maggi's family built their fortune by transforming parts of the Amazon into an agricultural superpower, leading to some of Brazil's highest deforestation rates. This raises the question of whether San Ignacio is destined for a similar fate.

Reports suggest that Bom Futuro, Maggi's agribusiness empire, has placed a deposit on a pristine 30,000-hectare forested plot nearby. Such a large investment typically attracts others. When contacted, Bom Futuro initially denied Maggi's involvement in Bolivia but later indicated that a partner might have made an acquisition.

Impact on Indigenous Communities

The Cabildo, the indigenous governing body of the Chiquitanos, expressed mixed feelings about the changes. While pleased that industrial agriculture provides work for their communities, they are also deeply concerned about losing their ancestral territory due to large farms encroaching on their land and creating conflicts.

Aerial Survey and the INPA Estate

An aerial survey of San Ignacio de Velasco, an area roughly the size of Denmark, revealed extensive agricultural expansion and deforestation. The flight aimed to locate the 30,000-hectare property the Maggi family is reportedly trying to acquire. Satellite images indicate this is the last remaining block of forest in that area.

Flying along the Brazilian-Bolivian border, a stark contrast was visible: the Brazilian side showed extensive deforestation, likely for pasture, while the Bolivian side featured the lush green Noel Kempff Mercado National Park. This human-drawn line dramatically altered the fate of the forest. The target property belongs to INPA, a Dutch-Bolivian company that uses the area for managed logging, keeping the forest mostly preserved. This area, equivalent to five Manhattans, is what Maggi, dubbed the "king of soybean," reportedly intends to convert into soybean fields.

Legalities and Political Influence

In La Paz, journalist Stasiek Czaplicki, who first reported on Maggi's alleged acquisition of the INPA estate, shed light on the legal complexities. While Bolivian law restricts foreign land ownership to 5,000 hectares unless the land was owned before the new constitution, foreign entities circumvent this by purchasing land through companies. Czaplicki described Bolivia as becoming a "wild west" for land trafficking, with Brazilian actors operating with little regard for the law, now joined by policymakers from both countries discussing investments that would lead to more deforestation. He noted that Bolivia's Minister of Environment previously headed ANAPO, the organization of soybean producers, creating a "recipe for the perfect disaster."

Bolivia's government's stance on these developments is crucial. Many officials were in Brazil for a bilateral meeting on cross-border investment. Fernando Romero Pinto, Bolivia's new Minister of Development Planning, now oversees environmental policy after the Ministry of Environment was dissolved. Pinto has a 25-year background as a prominent leader in the soy industry.

The Cycle of Amazonian Development

The situation in San Ignacio reflects a recurring cycle in the Amazon: outsiders arrive, governments build roads, newcomers buy land, local resistance emerges, and there's a trade-off between creating jobs and rampant deforestation. This cycle is now playing out in San Ignacio.

At a business forum in São Paulo, the "land sparing" narrative was again promoted, suggesting that intensifying existing farms would save forests. However, the direct link between Brazil's falling deforestation rates and Bolivia's rising ones remains unaddressed. The forum confirmed Brazil's formal backing for significant infrastructure projects, including roads and a river bridge connecting to Bolivia, far exceeding previous suggestions. The historical pattern in the Amazon shows that every new road leads to forest loss. This infrastructure development is seen by many as an export of Brazil's deforestation model.

Confirmation and Consequences

Eraí Maggi declined to speak with Bloomberg News, but his brother Fernando confirmed that they had purchased land in Bolivia. He stated their intention to replicate their success in Mato Grosso—expanding agriculture to generate wealth and improve Bolivia's situation. However, Mato Grosso is largely deforested, suggesting a similar outcome for Bolivia. This situation directly illustrates the unintended consequences of land sparing.

Following the investigation, the proposed road to San Ignacio and other large-scale infrastructure projects were confirmed. President Paz passed a law aimed at converting small farms into medium-sized ones, which indigenous leaders and peasants protested, arguing it allowed private businesses to seize their land. These protests forced the reversal of the law.

A recent Global Forest Watch report confirmed these findings: Bolivia's Amazon is vanishing as Brazil's is spared. Scientists warn that continued deforestation could trigger an Amazon tipping point by the 2030s, with fears that humanity is nearing a point of no return.