Coalition on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases

Low Carbon Agriculture Projects Underway in Brazil

Novo Campo Program

 

 

Project Description

The Novo Campo partnership project focuses on improving the productivity of pastureland in the Amazon Biome for 200 medium sized (500 – 2000 ha) producers. The project will measure soil carbon, work on traceability of cattle issues, and collect measurements of enteric fermentation on 10 pilot farms based on grass management techniques.  Farmers must meet the Farmer Eligibility Criteria that includes not planting on lands that were deforested after 2008; however, having a land title is not a requirement given the challenges associated with this, particularly in this region of Brazil.  Soil carbon and productivity measurements started in January of 2015 and the project has a projected timeline of 2 years. 

Project Participants

Implementation

• Instituto Centro de Vida: responsible for monitoring and the information management and monitoring platform
• Embrapa: responsible for research and technical support
• JBS: responsible for training support and price premium protocols
• GTPS
• Imaflora: responsible for beef traceability solution

Funding

• Norad
• Moore Foundation
• Fundo Vale

Expected/Achieved Outcomes

The goal of the project is to increase pasture productivity threefold in 8 months.  The project participants hope that the project will provide ranchers with more access to technology and information to implement sustainable changes on their land.  Outreach for the project will focus on productivity and financial improvements and not on the climate change benefits associated with the practice changes.

Sustainable Beef: Field to Table

 

Project Description

The Field to Table project is a three year project designed to improve beef production practices and traceability in the regions of Sao Felix do Xingu and Tucuman, in southeast Para.  This region was chosen due to its high potential for conservation in addition to its growing economic importance specifically for the livestock sector.  The project will support farmers with technical assistance and legal compliance under the Forest Code and Cadastro Ambiental Rural (CAR), improve production monitoring including monitoring of deforestation on farms, and enhance supply chain traceability to ensure claims made by producers can be supported by practices on the ground.

Project Participants

Implementation

• Walmart
• The Nature Conservancy (TNC)
• Marfrig
• Union of Rural Producer’s of Sao Felix do Xingu

Funding

• Moore Foundation
• City de Sao Felix do Xingu

Expected/Achieved Outcomes

The goal of the project is to ensure the conservation of forests, soils and rivers of the Amazon region of Brazil, while guaranteeing a sustainable origin of beef for the Brazilian consumers by means of an improved system of tracing the product.  TNC hopes to build a production model compatible with the conservation plan for the biome that can be applied in other areas of the Amazon in order to bring large scale results.

Sustainable Ranching Initiative

 

Project Description

The sustainable ranching partnership started at the beginning of 2014 as an effort to demonstrate the financial and environmental benefits associated with better field management including increases in productivity per hectare.  Imaflora and Marfrig initiated the project with visits to the farms.  The visits also included local technicians to explain the practice changes to the producers. Going forward, Imaflora will send livestock experts every 3 months to check on progress and answer questions.  The producers participating in the demonstration projects are all members of The Marfrig Club Program, which categorizes producers by their level of environmental and social performance on farm.  The overall goal of the initiative is to deploy demonstration units, enable technical teams and test continuous improvement indicators, in an effort to use them as multipliers of sustainable livestock.

Project Participants

Implementation

• Imaflora
• Sustainable Farming Group (GTPS)
• Marfrig

Funding

• Solidaridad
• Dutch government
• Local partners resources

Expected/Achieved Outcomes

By the end of 2014, the group hopes to have established trust with producers, through regular visits and transparency throughout the engagement process, provided customized solutions according to the specific needs of each producer, and started the first demonstration projects on selected properties.

By the end of 2015, the group aims to perform actions to mitigate GHG emissions.  

ABC Plan and Avoided Deforestation for Poverty Reduction in Brazil (Defra Project)

 

Project Description

Defra and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) have formed a partnership with funding of 40 million USD from Defra to improve land use and forestry management practices among rural producers in the Amazon and Atlantic forest biomes, to promote sustainable, low carbon rural development, poverty reduction, conservation of biodiversity, and climate protection.  These goals will be achieved through provision of financial and technical assistance to small and medium sized rural producers, which is expected to facilitate their access to the rural credits lines offered by the ABC program.  The larger project will also implement pilot projects to recover degraded forest and pasture areas in 7 strategic states in the Amazon and Atlantic forest.  

For more information on the project, refer to the Technical Cooperation Document.  

Project Participants

Implementation

• MAPA
• Coordination Environmental Sustainability Strategy Management Advisory (AGE)

Funding

• Defra

Executing Agency

• Inter-American Development Bank

Expected/Achieved Outcomes

The expected outcomes of the project include a reduction of roughly 10.7 million tons of CO₂ over 20 years, non-emission of 7 million tons of CO₂ as a result of avoided deforestation over the 20-year period, and higher income and poverty reduction in the targeted rural areas.

 

Sustainable Production in Areas Previously Converted to Agricultural Use Project (WB Project)

 

Project Description

The objective of this project is to promote the adoption of selected sustainable low carbon emissions agricultural technologies by mid-sized producers in the Cerrado.  To accomplish this the project will provide producer training, field techical assistance and project management, monitoring and evaluation.  Producer training will include support for planning and preparation of materials to train producers on the scope and rules of the ABC Plan technologies.  The field technical assistance component will train technical supervisors and field technicians on how to help rural producers implement ABC technologies, including the development of demonstration projects.  Finally, the project management, monitoring and evaluation objective will provide support for the technical and administrative management of the overall project, including supervision, monitoring and evaluation activities, as well as project audits.

Project Participants

Implementation

• SENAR on behalf of MAPA
• Embrapa – technical support

Funding

• International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank)

Expected/Achieved Outcomes

The project aims to increase the agricultural area using the ABC plan technologies by 15% in relation to the total productive area of the participating producers.  This will be accomplished by 12,000 direct project beneficiaries, meaning number of producers and technicians trained in the ABC plan, by year 4.  Additionally, the project has a goal of having a total of 900,000 ha under sustainable management by 3600 producers at the end of year 4.

Agua Brasil Project 

 

Project Description

In 2010, the Banco do Brasil (BB) in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Brazilian National Water Agency, Agencia Nacional de Aguas (ANA), launched Phase I of the Agua Brasil pilot project, targeted at promoting agricultural best management practices that conserve water, increase vegetation cover, and restore degraded natural resources in seven key watersheds:

• Canca-Moinho, SP;
• Guariroba, MS;
• Pipiripau, DF;
• Tiete-Jacarei Basin, SP;
• Peruacu, MG;
• Longa, PI; and
• Acre

To increase participation from farmers and land owners in this project, the project partners offered specialized financial products and services, such as low interest loans and annual payments for proper implementation.  The BB committed to investing BRL $57 M over a five-year period to implement Phase I of the pilot project, which ran from 2010-2015.

Project Participants

Implementation

• WWF Brazil
• TNC
• Ministry of the Environment 
• Local producers

Funding

• Bank of Brazil
• ANA
• Climate Project Fund
• NAMAs

Expected/Achieved Outcomes

Over 200 producers participated and benefited from the investments made by the BB, ANA, and other partners during Phase I and over 100 million people have indirectly benefited from the improvements made to water quality and water quantity.

Next Steps

Based on the success of Phase I, the BB, WWF and other partners are poised to begin Phase II of the Project.  Phase II will include 4 of the 7 Phase I watersheds, including three in the Cerrado and one large-scale recovery project in Sao Paulo. 

Phase II implementation from 2016-2020 will continue to focus on increased water availability and enhanced carbon sequestration and natural resource restoration via financial incentives to adopt best management practices.  Phase II will also include a new goal, to monitor and reward field-level impacts at a landscape scale.  This will be achieved through a cost-effective system to monitor and quantify the water quantity, water quality, and carbon impacts associated with increasing no-till, terracing, riparian and non-riparian reforestation and pasture restoration.