The Amazon basin is now China’s No.1 supplier of natural resources, replacing its Asian neighbors as their resources have become depleted. In a relatively short time, China has become Brazil’s major trading partner, overtaking the U.S. and Europe.

But China’s voracious demand for iron ore and timber, as well as soy and beef, is not only fuelling deforestation but negatively influencing Brazil’s environmental protection laws, in the view of researchers.

In a 2012 paper entitled Amazonian forest loss and the long reach of China’s Influence, the authors found that “the rapid rise in exports of soy and beef products to China are two of the major drivers of Amazonian deforestation in Brazil.”

- See more at: http://www.climatecentral.org/news/how-china-is-shaping-the-future-of-the-amazon-15650#sthash.UooEI7aC.dpuf