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The world is still warming. Global emissions still rising. People are demanding action. - For the first time ever, the UN climate talks were held in the Amazon. - Dozens of indigenous protestors blocked an entrance to the United Nations Climate Conference in Brazil Friday morning. - The rainforest and its inhabitants were at the center of it all. But so was the host nation's greatest contradiction. - Brazil over the last 40 years has transformed itself into the supermarket of the world. - Brazil has built one of the most powerful agricultural economies on earth.

Soybean, beef, corn. All of it depends on clearing land. - The amount of tropical rainforest lost last year is down by a third. - Yet, Brazil has also been celebrated as a conservation success story. With forest lost dropping 41% in 2025 alone. So can both things be true? The demand for these commodities hasn't gone anywhere, and neither have the people who profit from them. Now, with stricter law enforcement at home, Brazilian producers appear to be on the move.

It's our first day in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, which is Bolivia's economic powerhouse, but also the epicenter of its deforestation. I'm Fabiano Maisonnave. Having spent my career reporting on the Amazon. I've come here to ask a simple question: When one country cracks down on deforestation, where does that pressure go? Brazil champions land sparing as the solution. It's a strategy that promotes maximizing production on existing farmland to prevent clearing new forests.

But head toward the border here, and a different reality emerges. Brazil's agricultural heartland is spilling directly into San Ignacio de Velasco, Bolivia's newest hotspot for forest loss. Leading critics to argue, land sparing did not eliminate deforestation, but simply moved it. And the stakes are high. The Amazon, the world's largest rainforest, dictates the global climate. Its downfall would be catastrophic. We're heading to a local NGO mapping landscape changes to understand the reality on the ground.

San Ignacio de Velasco is the ancestral homeland of the Chiquitanos, Bolivia's indigenous people. But the region is changing fast. Shifting from subsistence farming to large scale industrial agriculture, endangering local traditions and the ecosystem. And the pressure is building. A new administration plans to dramatically expand the country's agricultural outspot. - Bolivia is poised for a major political shift after centrist Rodrigo Paz won the country's presidential runoff, ending nearly two decades of leftist rule.

Our next destination is San Ignacio de Velasco, which is the city that concentrates most of the deforestation in Bolivia. This is an area where there's a significant presence of Brazilian farmers. The data on foreign investment in land in Bolivia is a sensitive issue. The Bolivian constitution, they are very restrictive about foreigners owning land in Bolivia. It's been a challenge to find Brazilian groups who are willing to talk to us.

So far we haven't received a yes. I'm hoping that once we are on the ground in San Ignacio, we'll be able to meet some of them. The road to San Ignacio passes through land already remade by soybeans. This crop is Bolivia's top agricultural export and leading driver of deforestation. Three quarters of it goes straight to animal feed. We are in the Amazon basin, but the native landscape is almost unrecognizable. It makes me wonder what lies ahead for the untouched wilderness of Bolivia.

We came to investigate the reality of land sparing, but we've recently learned about a closed-door meeting in San Ignacio between Brazilian producers and ministers from both countries. The discussions were confidential, but it's fair to say what was agreed could have serious consequences for the environment. My contact is helping us track down people who may have attended the meeting. Okay, so she just sent us the contact of the manager of the farm where there was a meeting between the Brazilian Minister of Agriculture and two Bolivian ministers.

We're trying to find out what they discussed. So this meeting is important for us because the deforestation here, which is rampant and it's the largest among Bolivian municipalities, has been spearheaded by Brazilian ranchers. We want to know what are the demands of the Brazilian minister, how many Brazilian farmers took part of of this meeting, to understand what can happen in the region in terms of deforestation and agriculture expansion.

We arrived this afternoon in San Ignacio, which is a lovely town. It has beautiful architecture. We really feel the Brazilian influence. We see Brazilian stores. We see Brazilian flags. It's really a big presence here. To understand the landscape before the arrival of agribusiness, we're visiting our local family. They have championed sustainable farming for decades. And observed the land's transformation firsthand. To most people, the Amazon is a vast green expense on a map, slowly turning red from deforestation.

But in reality, there are many shades of green within it. Sciene has identified roughly 16,000 tree species here with many more to still undiscovered. And each region has its own unique flora and fauna. Any loss here isn't just a loss of trees. It's a destruction of biodiversity before it's even been documented. After leaving the farm, I finally made contact with someone who works at Rancho Dorado, the Brazilian-owned property that hosted the ministerial talks.

I just learned that Eraí Maggi Scheffer, one of the world's largest soybean producers, attended the meeting. He said that he had a meeting with the new Bolivian president for two hours and he thinks that Bolivia is a new era. And he's planning to invest in Bolivia in this region. And to do that, they are pushing for a new highway that would connect Brazil with Bolivia. In the Amazon, over 90% of deforestation takes place along highways.

So this is good news probably for the soybean producers, but this is probably bad news for environmental protection. The scale of Maggi's ambitions here surprises me. If true, the Brazilian billionaires investment could have major consequences for Bolivia's Amazon region. Tomorrow, we're going to Rancho Dorado to see for ourselves. So this is where the meeting took place. The Brazilian minister was here two weeks ago with soybean producers.

Intensifying production on farms like this is exactly what land sparring promotes, but it also exposes a core tension. What happens to the profits? Companies bolstered with higher returns look for new places to invest. And for Brazilian farmers seeking fertile land and favorable policies, Bolivia is looking increasingly attractive. Rancho Dorado is impressive. With 210 employees living on site. A private school with 60 students.

And significant plans for expansion. It offers an insight into what Brazilian investment could look like here. Visiting Rancho Dorado, I'm reminded of the industrial scale agriculture I've seen in Brazil's Mato Grosso. Maggi and his family built their fortune, helping turn that part of the Amazon into an agricultural superpower, which came at the cost of some of Brazil's highest deforestation rates. Which leaves me asking, could San Ignacio be next?

A news report offers a possible answer. Bom Futuro Maggi's agribusiness Empire has allegedly placed a deposit on a nearby pristine 30,000 hectare forested plot. An investment of this size tends to attract others. We reached out to the company to see if they would discuss the report. I've been talking to Bom futuro and that was kind of weird. The guy said, at first, "Oh, Erái Maggi has nothing to do with Bolivia." And then I said, "Well, I know that he's been in San Ignacio and also that there are press reports that he is trying to buy for 3,000 hectares in Chiquitania."

And then he answered me saying, "Oh, Bom Futuro didn't buy anything, but a partner of Bom Futuro might have bought something in Bolivia." And then I say, "Well, was it Er