Multi-stakeholder partnerships in agricultural commodity supply chains and deforestation-free commitments in the Amazon: a delicate balance

Carlos Germano Ferreira Costa

doi:10.18468/pracs.2020v13n2.p31-59

Abstract

Multi-stakeholder commitments to end deforestation have increased since the UN Climate Summit (UNCS) in 2014. Despite many agreeing to halve deforestation by 2020 and end it by 2030. Brazil is missing among the NYDF 2014 signatories. In this research, we discuss historical challenges, bottlenecks, and lessons learned about deforestation-free commitments at the local level, and the establishment of sustainable agricultural product supply chains. Through secondary research analysis and the review of Brazilian environmental legislation between 2011 and 2017, we examined the interactions and dependencies of the soy and beef supply chains that access productive territorial dynamics regarding these commitments, previously the many changes that occurred in Brazil with the new government, causing the dismantling of command and control policy and institutional frameworks in the Brazilian Amazon.

Highlights

Multi-stakeholder commitments to support deforestation-free commitments by the private sector and governments have increased since the United Nations Climate Summit (UNCS) in 2014 (NYDF, 2014)
We addressed the benefits and the bottlenecks of enforcing deforestation-free commitments in compliant municipalities in the state of Pará, Brazil, by examining the diversity of interactions and dependencies of multilevel actor agreements found in the Amazon agricultural-forest frontier and their implications for the complexity of interactions for forest governance, deforestation, land degradation, and the establishment of sustainable agricultural commodity supply chain in a broader perspective
Despite the annual fluctuation of deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon (Amazônia Legal) –the rate of deforestation estimated by PRODES, in 2016 (7,893 km2), indicated an increase of 29% in the deforestation compared to 2015 (6,207 km2)

Summary

Introduction

Multi-stakeholder commitments to support deforestation-free commitments by the private sector and governments have increased since the United Nations Climate Summit (UNCS) in 2014 (NYDF, 2014). Several countries, organizations, companies, indigenous groups, and civil society associations have agreed to reduce deforestation by half by 2020 and end it entirely by 2030. Since 2004, Brazil had achieved dramatic success[2] In the reduction of deforestation rates, when it dropped from 27,772 square kilometers (sq km) to 19,014 sq km in 2005 (INPE, 2019), despite high beef and soy prices (BOUCHER et al, 2013). Brazil was not among the signatories of the New York Declaration on Forests in 2014 (NYDF), the deforestation rates showed a clear sign of reaching its lowest year’s growth percentage in the period, achieving a decrease to 4,571 sq km of forest loss in 2012, (INPE, 2019; ESCOBAR, 2020). Due to an excellent combination of remote sensing technologies, improved data collection, and better environmental management, combined with political and financial coordination and sophisticated means of policy implementation developed, especially at the local level (PMV, 2017; INPE, 2019; IPAM, 2019; FERREIRA COSTA, 2020; BNDES, 2020)

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