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18.12.13

International Institute for Sustainability participates in VI seminar of GTPS

The sixth edition of the Grupo de Trabalho de Pecuária Sustentável – GTPS seminar (a sustainable cattle ranching working group) focused on the presentation of the project “Sustainable Cattle Ranching in Practice”. The program, started in August, aims to develop and test mechanisms and tools for a more sustainable livestock production in order to minimize the environmental impacts of the activity. There are seven active projects in five Brazilian states: Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Pará, Rondônia and Bahia.

In Alta Floresta, northern Mato Grosso, Instituto Centro de Vida – ICV, a partner of the International Institute for Sustainability, seeks to create deforestation-free cattle ranching. One of the strategies of the project is to train workers to act as Technical Support of Rural Extension agents in beef cattle with better practice methodologies, such as the pre-slaughter management, animal welfare and environmental compliance, and other items detailed in “Guidance Manual for Good Agricultural Practices – Beef Cattle” (in Portuguese), published by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation – Embrapa.

According to Márcio Rangel, IIS specialist in Cattle Ranching, the project is an important initiative to increase the income of the agricultural producer, ensuring greater control and adaptation to the activity and promoting improved market conditions for producers who implement good practices.

In turn, IIS, which is part of the GTPS Committee on Economic and Financial Incentives, analyzes ways to take the project developed in Alta Floresta to other places.

Scheduled to last two and a half years, the “Sustainable Cattle Ranching in Practice” program has a funding of € 926,000 from the Farmer Support Programme (FSP), Dutch government fund, and £ 9 million through the associated partners of GTPS.

The lectures of the Sixth Seminar of GTPS are available for download here.

GTPS and federal government sign agreement to regularize rural properties

At the seminar a cooperation agreement between the GTPS, the Ministry of Environment and the Secretariat of Strategic Affairs of the Presidency of the Republic was signed. The aim is to promote and support environmental regularization of rural properties, with a focus on the Rural Environmental Registry.

The purpose of the Registry is to motivate agricultural producers to agree to the commitments of maintaining, restoring or recovering the permanent preservation areas, environmental legal reserves and restricted use of rural property, in accordance with the specifications for each type of biome (Atlantic Forest, Cerrado or Amazon Forest) contained in the legislation.