Reflections on Multistakeholder Meetings in Brazil

If we want to meet the food needs of our planet's growing population without further converting important ecosystems, there is an opportunity to put Brazil at the centre of a transition to sustainable agricultural production. The country is a global leader in the production of cattle and soy – two commodities that contribute to forest loss and ecosystem conversion. And it goes without saying that Brazil is home to many precious biomes: not just the Amazon, the largest tropical rainforest, but also the world’s most diverse tropical savanna, the Cerrado.  

We must delink agricultural production from ecosystem conversion – simple to say, but it will require collective action from the private, finance and policy sectors which takes time, effort and, to be truly effective, requires face-to-face dialogue. This was the purpose of the Multistakeholder Meetings on Soy and Cattle in Brazil, that were convened by the Tropical Forest Alliance and partners Proforest and the Consumer Goods Forum Forest Positive Coalition of Action (CGF FPC), which brought together representatives from the private sector, finance and policy.   

Experts and practitioners have identified a handful of solutions that should be amplified, expanded and replicated. For cattle production, traceability is a foundational issue that must be addressed first, but will not be sufficient alone to tackle deforestation. When it comes to soy, there is a need to develop a suite of policy and financing tools to incentivise producers to protect native vegetation beyond legal requirements. 

It is essential to get all the players at the table to establish a shared understanding of the issues and solutions, and to develop shared goals, which is why our work is fundamental in facilitating this type of dialogue. The time is now. The Brazilian government has demonstrated strong political leadership to advance this agenda, with 19 ministries working on the agenda to tackle deforestation in Brazil across all its biomes (Pantanal, Caatinga, Amazon, Cerrado, Atlantic Forest and the Pampas). 

The meetings allowed consumer-facing companies, traders and meatpackers, Brazilian policy makers, implementing organisations, and a suite of NGO and government stakeholders from China, to discuss what is really happening on the ground, and importantly, what is required to address the challenges at hand, and the need for support from international stakeholders. We all came away from the meetings with an understanding that we have a shared responsibility for this successful transition:  

1. Government - sets the enabling policy and regulatory environment to incentivise the sustainable practices. China and Brazil bilateral relations can play a major role. 
2. The finance sector, philanthropy, and both bi-lateral and multilateral donors - help provide the liquidity to underwrite the changes needed.  
3. Civil society groups - help to develop the analytics, decision-support tools, and provide technical assistance. 
4. The private sector - has a responsibility to manage their own supply chains and to contribute to how commodities are produced.  

At the meeting all four of these groups demonstrated tremendous enthusiasm to collaborate and accelerate the pace of change in the run up to COP30 in Pará in 2025.