The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Pio Stefanelo, is a participant in the Responsible Soy project in the Amazon. © Fernanda Preto

Being associated with deforestation is bad business. Consumers are increasingly aware of the role they may play in environmental degradation, which opens up what the Conservancy believes to be one of the greatest conservation opportunities of our time: the responsible sourcing of agricultural commodities.

Brazil is a key country to develop this strategy, due to its growing importance as an agricultural superpower. There, we are working with governments, companies and local producers to help supply markets demanding responsibly produced commodities from farmers and ranchers who do not deforest.

Focusing on municipalities with the highest deforestation rates in the country, the Conservancy aims to create realistic incentives for local producers to comply with Brazil’s Forest Code – which mandates that landowners must preserve part of their property in native vegetation – and to develop tools to facilitate the enforcement, monitoring and replication of conservation strategies in local supply chains.

Read the Conservancy’s report, "Responsible Sourcing of Agricultural Commodities: the way ahead in Brazil".