Institutions establish cooperation to ensure legality and sustainability of cattle ranching in Pará

The Public Prosecutor’s Office and the organisations Amigos da Terra – Amazônia Brasileira and the Institute for Forest and Agriculture Management and Certification (Imaflora) signed a term of commitment to create a technical committee to support the implementation and extension of the Terms of Adjustment of Conduct (TAC) established between the Public Prosecutor’s Office, meatpackers and other members of the cattle production chain in Pará. The aim is to ensure the legality and sustainability of this economic activity in the state.

Among other measures, Amigos da Terra and Imaflora are responsible for structuring and maintaining a support entity to improve the efficiency and transparency of the processes involved in the implementation of the TACs, organising an efficient, transparent and balanced methodology that can be used by the signatory companies in their annual audits, including schedules for the performance of the audits and training for auditors regarding the auditing protocol.

Imaflora and Amigos da Terra – Amazônia Brasileira have also agreed to form a steering committee to offer strategic advice to the Public Prosecutor’s office in Pará state, with the involvement of social stakeholders from the cattle-ranching chain who will take on the role of the committee's executive department and are interested in the effective implementation of the Beef TAC and its expansion.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office will be in charge of providing the necessary information for the performance of scientific, advisory and instructive support activities for the Beef TAC and other requirements of Amigos da Terra and Imaflora, as well as participating, whenever possible, in alignment meetings between the parties to discuss and help in the implementation of the activities set forth in the agreement.

More participation 

"This term of commitment fills a gap in terms of organisation and technical support for the requirements of the Cattle-Ranching TAC in Pará, to the benefit of the signatories and other direct and indirect participants, who now have more channels for involvement and can deal with the requirements faster," explained Federal Prosecutor Ricardo Negrini.

For the manager of the Agricultural Chains Programme of Amigos da Terra – Amazônia Brasileira, Pedro Burnier, the agreement is important because it forms a task force that can speed up the implementation of the Beef TAC and gives a voice to the actors of the chain so they can actively participate in the process.

"We believe that civil society has an important role in this process, and we want to offer all our technical and articulation capacity to help strengthen and expand this instrument that is so vital in ensuring the sustainability of the beef chain", he stated.

The manager of Responsible Agriculture and Livestock Chains at Imaflora, Isabel Garcia-Drigo, points out that cooperation with the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Pará "is essential in speeding up the implementation agenda of the Beef TAC and improving the system, which will benefit meatpackers and producers of all sizes".

The technical committee set forth in the cooperation term will be supervised by the Public Prosecutor's Office and will include three more representatives from universities or non-profit organizations, besides Imaflora and Amigos da Terra.

Full text of the term of commitment: https://www.beefontrack.org/public/media/arquivos/1636138486-2021-imaflora-termo_cooperacao_tecnica_mpf_adt_imaflora_tac_carne_pa_out.2021.pdf