Ranchers can earn an average $50 a year from raising cattle on a hectare of land in the Brazilian Amazon, according to government agricultural census data. It may not sound much, but for a farm covering thousands of hectares it is an incentive to clear virgin forest that produces no income.

Experts say law enforcement can only go so far in trying to preserve the Amazon. The world’s largest rainforest absorbs and stores huge amounts of carbon dioxide, making it crucial in the fight against climate change. But it has faced continuous destruction from cattle ranching, illegal logging and gold mining.

Ultimately, the rainforest will only survive if it is more profitable to keep it standing than to cut it down. As guardian of most of the rainforest and host of this year’s COP30 summit in the city of Belém, known as the gateway to the Amazon, Brazil has an ambitious strategy to make conservation pay.