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		The Nature Conservancy in Brazil Brazil Places We Protect Brazil News Ways of Giving Contact Us Versão em Português South America Marine

Get Involved You can learn more about our work in the Amazon and our efforts to encourage sustainable farming when you join the Conservancy's online community and build your own personalized nature page. Go Deeper Market-Based Incentives for Conservation Find out how the Conservancy is working with Cargill to provide market-based incentives to farmers who follow sustainable practices. Courses on Rainforest Restoration Learn how  the Conservancy and its partners recently hosted a workshop to help farmers implement restoration plans on their land. European Pressure The European Union bought 10 million tons of soy from Brazil in 2006, primarily for use as animal feed. Now, European consumers are pressuring fast food outlets to stop using feed that comes from deforested land in the Amazon. Explore the Amazon Explore the Amazon River Basin, which harbors nearly one-third of the world’s species and contains nearly one-quarter of the earth’s fresh water.

In a region of the Brazilian Amazon known for its lush rainforest, spectacular white-sand river beaches, and pink dolphins, large-scale farming threatens biological diversity.

In response to this threat, The Nature Conservancy is working with with soy farmers on the Responsible Soy Project, an initiative that has the potential to conserve nearly 1.2 million acres of this important tropical forest.

Verifying Environmental Protection

The initial phase of the project began in 2004:

• Four field teams comprised of Conservancy staff and partners utilized 108 satellite images and field visits with 300 small-, medium- and large-scale soy farmers to complete an environmental assessment.
• That lays the groundwork for the initiative, which will verify that soy is being cultivated in an environmentally sensitive way.
• Utilizing this assessment, the teams began a pilot project for environmental compliance with the goal of slowing rainforest conversion caused by large-scale farming.

Moving Sustainable Farming Forward

The pilot project has evolved from 25 farmers to encompass 210 farmers with the objective of helping them develop eco-friendly practices that abide with Brazilian environmental legislation. To move the initiative forward, the Conservancy and its partners have:

• Hosted a three-day workshop to help provide technical assistance to producers involved on the restoration of degraded areas.
• Continued to provide technical assistance to farmers to help them come into compliance with environmental legislation.
• In the coming months, the Conservancy will also update the assessment that was conducted in 2005 to have an up-to-date portrait of all producers in the region, especially those who recently entered into the project.

This initiative is a step forward in promoting environmentally and socially-conscious agricultural practices that help protect valuable Amazon forest habitat.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Benito Guerrero/TNC (soy farm); Photo © Steve Niedorf (sustainability workshop).