Silva et al. (Land Use Policy, 21 July 2020) offer an assessment of the links between deforestation, livestock production and exports in Brazil. Their analysis, based on relative changes in beef production and pasture area across the whole of Brazil, showed an “apparent decoupling of the link between beef production and deforestation in Brazil”. In reanalysing these links, we find that Silva et al. underestimate the strong, positive and significant associations between Brazilian livestock production and deforestation. Moreover, despite focusing the title, abstract and the beginning of their manuscript on the Amazon, their analyses are conducted at the national level, and fail to recognise marked differences in the development trajectories of Brazilian biomes, and that most of the recent pasture expansion in Brazil has replaced Amazonian forests. To progress any debate and aid decision-making regarding land-use changes in the Amazon, a region often in the spotlight and subjected to many debates that lack evidence, scientists must be open and scrupulous with their data sources and analyses.

Silva等。（《土地使用政策》，2020年7月21日）对巴西的森林砍伐，畜牧生产和出口之间的联系进行了评估。他们的分析基于整个巴西牛肉生产和牧场面积的相对变化，表明“巴西牛肉生产和森林砍伐之间的联系明显脱钩”。在重新分析这些联系时，我们发现席尔瓦等人。低估了巴西牲畜生产和森林砍伐之间的牢固，积极和重要的联系。此外，尽管标题，摘要和手稿的开头都集中在亚马逊上，但他们的分析是在国家一级进行的，未能认识到巴西生物群落发展轨迹的显着差异，以及最近大部分牧场的扩展。巴西已经取代了亚马孙森林。为了推动有关亚马逊土地使用变化的辩论和援助决策，亚马逊是一个备受关注的地区，并且受到许多缺乏证据的辩论的影响，科学家们必须公开，谨慎地掌握其数据来源和分析。