The study, prepared by the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics, or IBGE, says the destruction of Amazon jungles and the savannahs of central Brazil went faster between 2010 and 2012 that in the previous 10 years.

While between 2000 and 2010 destructive changes were inflicted on some 7% of Brazilian territory, in the two-year period between 2010-2012 the process was speeded up and about 3.5% of the country’s natural vegetation was destroyed.

One of the contributors to the study, Eloisa Domingues, says that the areas whose vegetation suffered the greatest changes were precisely those “where there was an expansion of agriculture.”

The ecosystems that were hardest hit in recent years were the semi-arid zones of northeastern Brazil known as “caatinga,” the savannahs of the central region of the country and the southern pampas.

Those areas, where most of the crops and livestock are produced, lost about 7.8% of their native vegetation between 2010-2012, which amounts to some 159,670 sq. kilometers.

During the same period, the combined area of rain forest in the Amazon region and on the Atlantic coast was reduced by 1.8%, or close to 59,230 sq. kilometers, according to the study.

Some 68% of the deforested areas in the Amazon and Atlantic rain forests were turned into croplands, 28% into pastures and 4% were dedicated to forestry.

Brazil is one of the world’s great agricultural and livestock producers, the leading producer of beef and the chief exporter of soy, oranges, coffee, sugar and poultry meat.