Soy Moratorium in the
Brazilian Amazon Biome
A SUCCESSFUL MULTISTAKEHOLDER INITIATIVE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST DEFORESTATION
United Nations Conference on Climate Change
Copenhagen, Denmark
December 2009
Soy moratorium: a joint endeavor for sustainability
On July 26, 2006, the associated companies of the Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Industries
– ABIOVE and the Cereal Exporters National Association – ANEC decided to implement a new and
daring project to contribute to reducing the deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon Biome. At the
time, they communicated their commitment to developing a system that would endeavor to conciliate
environmental preservation with economic development through a responsible and sustainable use
of the Brazilian natural resources.
The initiative, promoted by the private sector, counted from the start on the support and participation
of the organizations of civil society: International Conservation, Greenpeace, IPAM, TNC and WWFBrazil. Since July 2008, the Brazilian government has been part of the initiative, through the Ministry
of the Environment – MMA. The initiative is also supported by Amigos da Terra Amazônia Brasileira,
Imaflora and STTR Santarém.
These institutions took part in the Soy Work Group – GTS, a discussion forum where the private sector
and civil society together define strategies to be adopted by the companies in the Moratorium, in
which they committed to not commercializing soybean coming from deforested areas in the Amazon
Biome after the declaration.
Respect for the demand for sustainable soy production
The Amazon Biome is the center of world attention. An ecosystem with high biodiversity, an important reserve of carbon stocks and a rainfall regulating
agent of regions and countries are only some of the elements that make it the object of international attention.
The presence of soybean in the region is small: less than five thousandths of the total area. In spite of this, the expansion of
the area planted in Brazil in the last 10 years has raised the hypothesis that associates this growth to the deforestation rates
in the Biome.
Thus the associated companies of the ABIOVE and ANEC, that represent about 90% of the market, took a strong stand in favor
of better understanding of the causes of deforestation and of improving the governance of the region. To implement it, it was
created a monitoring system that can verify the use and occupation of the open areas in the Biome after the announcement
of the Moratorium.
The monitoring consists of geoprocessing satellite images and aerial surveys of the selected forested areas, following
identification of a property with soybean cropping. This process ensures that the companies who signed the Moratorium will
not acquire the production and nor will they finance the following growing season on the properties that are not in line with
the Moratorium.
The Soy Moratorium contributes to reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions - GHG
Greenhouse Gas emissions – GHG – increase the average temperature of the planet and cause other phenomena
related to climate changes. Recent studies have indicated that the world emissions from deforestation represent
between 12% and 20% of the global Greenhouse Gas emissions.
Brazil, that has the largest continuous area of tropical forests in the world, has an internationally recognized
satellite monitoring system and plays an important role in these discussions.
Although Brazilian legislation authorizes the use of only 20% of the property in the Biome for agricultural
purposes, the member companies of the Moratorium do not accept soybean deliveries from areas
opened after the cut-off date of July 26, 2006. By collaborating with the reduction in deforestation, the
Moratorium helps prevent the emissions associated with this activity.
Opportunities of payment for environmental services - PES
When in line with the requirements of the Moratorium, some rural producers no longer exercise their right to use the land to produce foodstuffs,
providing an excellent opportunity to develop payment mechanisms for prevented deforestation, such as that foreseen by the Reducing Emissions
from Deforestation and Forest Degradation - REDD.
Starting in July 2009, the private sector started studies to create and implement a program of continuous improvement in the sustainability indicators
of the rural properties. They will all act to improve the management of the soybean rural property and will count on the support and coordination
among the soybean productive chain, civil society and research and rural extension institutes.
Good agricultural practices and meeting the rigorous Brazilian environmental legislation will result in the effective reduction of Greenhouse Gas
emissions from soy cropping. The economic and technical incentive for no till, for example, fits fully in the discussions on the mitigating actions of
developing countries in the ambit of COP-15. Increasing the planted area using these techniques will contribute to improving the emissions balance
from the soybean fields and also from other crops produced in rotation with the oilseed.
REDD and NAMA will benefit the whole planet, both by the sustainable soy production to meet the growing world demand for foodstuffs, and the
reduction of GHG emissions that cause climate changes.
Two years of successful monitoring
In two years of monitoring by satellite images and field visits, it can
be stated that the presence of soy in the monitored areas is very small
and shows that the oilseed is not an important for deforestation in the
Amazon Biome.
The continental dimensions of the Biome and its social and economic
diversity, require a careful approach to monitor the deforested areas.
In the first step, the satellite images were analyzed supplied by the
National Institute for Space Research - INPE, indicating the area and
distribution of the deforested polygons.
This information was then related to the official soybean production
data published by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics
– IBGE.
Finally, based on this information and on other criteria, detailed later, a
final list of polygons was obtained to be surveyed by air because there
was a possibility of soybean occurrence.
In the first year, that refers to the 2007/08 growing season, it was
confirmed that the oilseed was not planted in any of the 265 areas selected in the states of Mato
Grosso, Pará and Rondônia, which concentrate soybean production in the Amazon Biome.
In the second monitoring, that refers to the 2008/09 growing season, only 1.4 thousand hectares were cultivated with soybean,
corresponding to 0.88% of the monitored area. In this growing season, 630 deforested areas were surveyed, that shows the effort to
increase monitoring in the face of the concern to identify and not acquire soybean from these areas.
The monitoring also showed that all the polygons in Mato Grosso with soybean cropping were located on properties that were already in
the process of environmental licensing. That is, they were regularizing the areas of the legal reserve and permanent preservation, which
represent 80% of the total area of the property and ought to be kept under native vegetation.
Although the properties are in the process of regularization,
Deforestation 2007
Deforestation 2008
it should be emphasized that soybean from these areas
was not acquired by the member companies of the Soy
Moratorium. Furthermore, all the properties that were not
in line with the initiative will not receive new financing from
the companies for the next growing season.
An example of monitoring was carried out in ID 256, a
polygon in the municipality of Nova Maringá, Mato Grosso
state. Here a 183,96 ha deforested area was found by the
deforestation images from 2007 and 2008:
This area was monitored in the two years and aerial surveys showed that soybean was not planted in any of the areas, because they were
abandoned and the vegetation had started the natural regeneration process:
Monitoring innovations in the 2009/2010 growing season
The third monitoring by the Soy Moratorium will widen the scope of the selected polygons. In the first two years, all the polygons were
monitored that had an area equal or greater than 100 ha and complied with the following criteria:
A. Within the Amazon Biome
B. Located outside legally protected areas
C. In municipalities whose current growing season or the projection for the next indicated an area greater than 5,000 ha planted
with soybean
In addition, all the areas of less than 100 hectares were monitored refering to the 2007 deforestation in the municipalities of Feliz Natal,
União do Sul and Vera in the state of Mato Grosso to understand the land use and occupation in this class of polygons.
In the monitoring of the 2009/2010 growing season, the minimum size of the polygons considered for analysis will be decreased,
because it will be incorporated all that meet the following conditions:
D. Larger than 50 ha with probability of soybean occurrence in the states of Mato Grosso, Pará and Rondônia
E. Larger than 25 ha contiguous to an area of soybean cropping.
The a, b and c criteria applied to the previous monitoring will be maintained. In this year, however, the monitoring will also include the
tendency for deforestation over the years in small areas by including all the polygons that, added together, have a minimum relevant
area for soybean production.
This study will be carried out by INPE, the authority responsible for calculating the deforestation rates in Brazil, that has developed a
specific algorithm to detect soybean from MODIS and Landsat satellite image interpretation.
These tools will significantly reduce the need for aerial monitoring of the areas without soybean cropping, because other uses can be
identified. Thus it will be possible to increase the number of monitored polygons and concentrate efforts on areas where soybean
cropping is likely.
Lessons from the Moratorium for sustainable development
The transparency and the positive results from the Soy Moratorium
have received recognition from the Brazilian government that,
through the Ministry of the Environment, started to participate in
the initiative. Since then, Minister Carlos Minc has highlighted it as
an example of dialogue between the entrepreneurial sector and civil
society and of sustainability to be followed by other sectors.
The producers also saw in the moratorium an opportunity to improve
the sustainability indicators of the property and the product image in
the world.
It was recognized internationally by a group of European consumers,
who praised the efforts and supported its continuity.
Thus the soybean productive chain in Brazil has contributed to better
understanding of the causes of deforestation in the Amazon Biome
and has taken a firm stance against the expansion of the oilseed in the
areas opened after July 2006.
All this information is available on the site www.abiove.com.br, that
includes documents, reports, pictures and the complete methodology.
Members of GTS
STTR de Santarém