The Arima study is based on 761 municipalities located in the Legal Amazon of Brazil, and found that between 2003 and 2008, soybean areas expanded by 39,100 km2 in the basin's agricultural areas, mainly in Mato Grosso. The model showed that a 10% (3,910 km2) reduction of soy in old pasture areas would have led to a reduction in deforestation of up to 40% (26,039 km2) in heavily forested municipalities of the Brazilian Amazon. The analysis showed that the displacement of cattle production due to agricultural expansion drives land use change in municipalities located hundreds of kilometers away, and that the Amazonian ILUC is not only measurable but its impact is significant.
