Since 2015, the State of Mato Grosso has developed a multi-stakeholder Sustainable Development Plan called Produce, Conserve and Include (PCI), with goals to increase production, promote the inclusion of family farming, restore environmental liabilities and eliminate illegal deforestation. As part of this action, the PCI Institute’s Plan of Action for the coming years was presented this week in Cuiabá, during meetings involving Secretaries of State, local authorities, founding members and members of the state committee.
Launched in 2015 at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 21), held in Paris (France), the Strategy was consolidated and led to the PCI Institute, a private non-profit association created by State Decree 42/2019, aimed at gathering and manage public and private funds to implement sustainable production practices in the field.
The plan presented in November and built collaboratively among PCI members is another important step in creating a robust structure that will enable the state of Mato Grosso to receive investments to foster the sustainable development of its territory. “The objective is to ensure corporate status and material and human structure in order to give effect to the Institute’s functions as determined by State Decree and according to the approved organizational plan,” explained Fernando Sampaio, executive director of the PCI Institute.
During the meeting held last 26th, the Secretary of the Chief of Staff’s Office, Mauro Carvalho Júnior, highlighted the achievements of Mato Grosso related to the management of its territory, the promotion of inclusive public policies and, especially, the commitment of the state government to fight illegal deforestation. “We will relentlessly act on illegal deforestation. At the same time, we will provide full support to legal productive activities, which are an example to the world. In this regard, having an Institute with a corporate status capable of receiving investments is key”, he stressed.
This Action Plan is based on central pillars, such as the structuring of the Institute, the definition of priority actions for attracting investments, the monitoring of objectives and goals established, the regionalization of the action based on a territorial vision, and communication actions to ensure visibility and credibility.
Since 2016, the State Government and the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) have had a formal partnership to support this strategy, with resources totaling over EUR 9 million by 2020, encompassing the PCI Strategy, the PCI Regional Compacts and the co-financing of projects with the private sector – developed by IDH.
Moreover, the State has implemented a number of public policies that positively impact both the goals set out in the partnership memorandum and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“Mato Grosso is an environment that offers countless opportunities for our way of working, which seeks to cause impacts on scale with the involvement of different social players, consumer markets, producers, companies and governments,” stated IDH Executive Director in Brazil, Daniela Mariuzzo.
The State has recently received the first financial funding through the REDD+ program (Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), which grants awards for reduced greenhouse gas emissions. The funds received by the government came from Germany and the United Kingdom through the REM Program.
Land regularization has also received attention, with the Terra à Limpo (Clean Earth) program, which raised funds from the Amazon Fund as well as the environmental legalization of rural properties through the CAR-KfW project, through which German bank KfW supports effective public policies in the states of the Amazon Region.
The implementation of the CAR (Rural Environmental Register) State System, the new phase of the Deforestation and Forest Fire Prevention and Control Plan (Plano de Prevenção e Controle de Desmatamentos e Incêndios Florestais – PPCDIF), the creation of a State Family Farming Plan and a beef origin guarantee system, through the Mato Grosso State Beef Institute (Instituto Mato-grossense da Carne – IMAC), are other examples within the series of actions taken by the State to contribute towards the 21 goals of the PCI Strategy.
The priority given to sustainable production has also led to positive results for the government’s tax area. The PCI strategy and the endorsement of the PCI Institute have been accepted as environmental safeguard in offset to the US$ 250 million loan ranted by the World Bank with the purpose of mitigating the impact of the difficult tax situation the state is facing.
The founders of the PCI Institute are the National Corn Ethanol Union – UNEM, Amaggi, Marfrig, Agroicone, IDH, ICV, Earth Innovation Institute and EcoArts.