This impact story was originally published by IDH here.
IDH and FAEPA (Agriculture and Livestock Federation of Pará) have just signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop and implement a long-term strategy for sustainable land use in the state of Pará. The collaboration will focus on promoting the sustainable production of agricultural commodities and biodiversity products in the state, which will attract public and private investment and open up global consumer markets.
Initially, the purpose of the partnership is to support the consolidation of the strategic vision of productive sector of the State of Pará, known as PRO PARÁ, and to prioritise areas for the development of technical assistance models that can be scaled throughout the state over the years.
The cooperation will last for five years and will support the productive sector of Pará in relation to the sustainable development agenda within the Sectoral Plan for Land Use Change and Forestry, called PEAA – Plano Estadual Amazônia Agora (Amazon Now State Plan). It will also support the development of solutions for climate change issues that directly affect growers.
For IDH, the partnership is a major step towards involving the productive sector in the robust agenda for the sustainable landscape development already established in Pará, which advocates a balance between production, conservation of natural resources and the involvement of farmers. “The engagement of the productive sector is essential to promote systemic changes in production models that will accelerate the transition to more sustainable, inclusive and low-carbon systems”, says Daniela Mariuzzo, executive director of IDH Brazil.
Through the agreement, IDH and FAEPA have also set the goal of using the Protocol for the Sustainable Production of Calves as the main pillar of the sustainability strategy in the Pará cattle-raising chain, in order to support the challenge of having 1 million calves registered on the platform by 2025.
The President of FAEPA, Carlos Fernandes Xavier, celebrates the partnership, which he sees as an important achievement for the productive sector, in line with the organisation’s mission to represent and defend farmers, while promoting actions for the sustainability of agribusiness. “The FAEPA-SENAR System, through its Technical and Management Assistance staff, is ready to start this project, which is crucial for the farmers of our state. This project will be coordinated in the 10 union clusters that make up FAEPA’s logistics system.”
IDH and FAEPA will work seamlessly to disseminate this strategic agenda both in Brazil and internationally. They expect to engage public and private actors, such as farmers, companies, financial institutions, and civil society, to help attract investment and connection to consumer markets.