One Small Rancher’s Big Role in Saving Brazil’s Amazon

Mauro Lúcio Costa is crisscrossing the rainforest’s cattle ranches in a battle to preserve the land and transform the cattle industry

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PARAGOMINAS, Brazil—When Mauro Lúcio Costa began rearing cattle in the 1980s in the Amazon, he took to the forest like everyone else: with a chain saw and a match.

Ranchers like him eventually cleared an area as large as California from the world’s largest rain forest.

Mr. Costa broke ranks in 2002 and started employing more sustainable techniques,...