Entities Launch a Management & Rural Property Certification Program for Brazilian Soybeans, called Soja Plus

Soja Plus is being organized by the following entities: ABIOVE (the Brazilian Vegetable Oil Industries Association), APROSOJA (Mato Grosso State Soybean Producers Association), ANEC (the National Grain Exporters Association) and ARES (Responsible Agribusiness Institute). These institutes represent the Brazilian soybean complex's productive sector and are deeply aware of the great importance of improving the sustainability indices for Brazilian soybeans. To meet this objective, their organizers put together a program capable of meeting the challenges that face the country's agriculture.

Joining the Soja Plus Program will be voluntary, and its implementation will follow a process of continuous improvement in sustainability indices. It is an inclusive program, whose objective is the socio-environmental management of the properties and the training of producers in the several stages of socio-environmental adaptation, so that, at the end of the process, they are qualified receive the Seal of Certification issued by the Program and other existing initiatives.

In summary, the purpose of Soja Plus is simple and verifiable certification, thus avoiding unnecessary costs and bureaucracy and making its implementation easy. At the same time, it will be capable of meeting the desire for sustainable soybean production, benefiting all the participants and the country by increasing economic opportunities, by improving socio-environmental conditions and by revaluing the image of Brazilian soybeans.

The Program was launched on April 6th 2010 with a press conference attended by the following participants from the organizers institutions and SGS which has audit the filed tests: Bernardo Pires - Forest Engineer - ABIOVE; Carlo Lovatelli - President of ABIOVE; Felicio Aguiar - President of ANEC; Luis Eduardo - Systems & Certification Services Manager of SGS; Ocimar Villela - Superintendent of Instituto ARES; Ricardo Arioli - Director of Aprosoja and Vanda Nunes - Marketing and Production Manager of SGS.

Click here for more information on Soja Plus Program

Held on July 28, 2009, in Brazilia, Brazil, the teleconference is available during the next three months on the link bellow. After clicking on the link you will have to provide your name, e-mail address and company name to access the video.

Click here to access the International Teleconference on the Soy Moratorium 3rd Anniversary.

This Tuesday, July 28, 2009, the business sector connected to soy processing and export (ABIOVE, ANEC and their members), civil society organizations (Greenpeace, Conservation International-Brazil, WWF-Brazil, IPAM and TNC) and the Ministry of the Environment announced the renewal of the Soy Moratorium in the Amazon Biome until July 2010. The Moratorium is the commitment not to trade soy from areas in the Biome deforested after July 24, 2006, and celebrated its third anniversary.

Initially an initiative of the private sector and civil society, the Moratorium received the support of the Minister of the Environment, Carlos Minc, who formally joined the initiative last year. According to Minc, "Soy Moratorium is a well succeeded example. The monitoring of the Ministry of Environment concluded that soybean is not anymore an important element in the Amazon deforestation."

Created in 2006 to implement the Moratorium, the Soy Work Group (GTS), made up of representatives from the companies and the NGOs, believes that the initiative has given an important contribution to the reduction in the Amazon's annual deforestation rate. According to the GTS, in these three years of the Moratorium, concrete advances have been made, such as the creation of a monitoring system based on satellite images, flyovers and field visits that allows companies to identify properties that are not complying with the Moratorium, removing them from the ABIOVE and ANEC supplier list. Nevertheless, the GTS considers that the Amazon Biome governance conditions are not yet sufficient to allow a suspension of the Moratorium.

Innovations in monitoring
INPE data on last year's forest canopy loss in the Amazon indicate the deforestation profile is changing, with an increase in the number of deforested areas with less than 100 hectares, compensated by a significant drop in deforestation of larger areas - precisely those directly monitored by the GTS. Therefore, the monitoring system has to be changed to include small deforestations in the analysis of next year's crop, whose planting starts in October. The GTS intends to adopt a sampling system, using remote sensory technology to identify crops through satellite images of adequate spatial resolution. This technological advance should make it possible to preselect properties for field visits, so that a significant number of deforestations in the Amazon can be monitored in 2009/2010.

Priority for registration of properties
According to ABIOVE's President, Carlo Lovatelli, the industry's GTS coordinator, one of the main priorities will be to stimulate registration and environmental licensing of rural properties. Registration allows consultation of the property's exact location, identification of the owner and follow-up of the property's Legal Reserve and Permanent Preservation (APP) areas. The companies will promote orientation and awareness campaigns among rural producers, in harmony with state government efforts, such as the "Legal MT" program recently launched by the Mato Grosso state government. At the same time, the GTS will encourage the federal government to support a better structure for the state organs responsible for registrations and licensing. "For agribusiness to operate transparently in the Amazon Biome, the soy producer must register his property and the government must do its part. This is a fundamental step to give our customers a guarantee of the environmental quality of our product", said Lovatelli.

The Moratorium in Copenhagen
The GTS plans to report the Moratorium case in a parallel session to the U.N.'s Convention on Climatic Changes, which will be held in Copenhagen in December. The objective is to show that corporate responsibility measures, such as the Soy Moratorium, can contribute positively to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

"Initiatives such as these need the international community's support, through adoption of financial mechanisms that allow support for forest and climate conservation without damaging food production", said Paulo Adario, Greenpeace's Amazon Campaign Director and the civil society's coordinator in the GTS. "In addition to increasing the government's institutional capacity for monitoring and conservation, new money is needed on the table so that local communities and rural producers can produce without cutting down the forest", states Adario. ABIOVE's Lovatelli echoes this: "Payment for environmental services will be a big incentive for the rural producer not to deforest. The industry hopes that, in Copenhagen, governments from different countries assume this commitment".

Verification System
According to Lovatelli, ABIOVE will propose to the GTS a voluntary and remunerated verification system, in a partnership between the productive sector and civil society organizations, by allying the Moratorium experience with the creation of simple and operational tools adjusted to Brazilian specifications and respecting the consumer's expectations for a responsible product. "Additional remuneration through verification would be an added attraction for producers to register their properties and comply with Brazilian environmental and labor legislation, at the same time as they adopt best practices", emphasized Lovatelli.

GTS Members

Eight thousand years ago, Brazil had 9.8% of the world's forests. Today it holds 28.3%. Nowadays, less than 15.5 million square km are covered with pristine forests, about 24% of the 64 million square km that existed before the Human demographic and technological expansion. More than 75% of the world's forests have disappeared. Except the Americas, all other continents have cut down their forests and the total amount is not insignificant, according to EMBRAPA Satelite Monitoring Center on the World's Forest Evolution Research.

Europe alone, without Russia, once held more than 7% of the world's forests. Today there is only 0.1% left. In Africa once there were 11% and now, 3.4%. Asia had almost a quarter of the world's forested area (23.6%), now holds only 5.5%, and the deforestation hasn't stopped yet. On the other hand, South America once held 18.2% and now is responsible for 41.4% of the world's pristine forests. The major area within this percentage - a number that keeps growing every year - is among Brazilian borders.

Far from belonging to the past, this trend is still maintained. Brazil is already one of the countries that have destroyed the least its forests, and if the world's deforestation continues at the same ratio, it will hold, in the next future, almost half of all the primary forests in the world. The greatest paradox is that, instead of being recognized for its conservation history, for maintaining the pristine forest cover, Brazil is actually severely criticized by the deforestation champions deprived themselves from their own memory.

In most European, African and Asian countries, the Nature defense is a recent phenomenon. In Brazil, however, the forest preservation concern goes back a long way in the past. Since the 16^th century, as soon as the Portuguese settlement began, laws were enforced by the appointment of the Kings Dom Manuel and Dom Felipe II (Ordenações Manuelinas e Filipinas), whom established rules and limits for the land, waters and vegetation exploration. In 1550, there was already a list of "royal trees" protected by the King's determination, originating the expression "law-timber", still used in the present in Brazil to designate hardwood. The Brazilwood Bylaws, since 1600, stated the rules for the trees conservation, not land use alone. There were areas, by then, which were considered as "Crown Forest Reserves". These land parcels couldn't be destined to agriculture. This legislation granted the forests sustainable maintenance and exploration until 1875 when aniline was introduced in the world's market . The rational Brazilwood exploration preserved a good part of the Atlantic Forest until the 19th century end, and this wasn't the deforestation cause, which occurred much later.

The same happened with the mangroves. In 1760 a royal permit signed by King Dom José I protected them. The municipal councils were notified and summoned to enforce the legislation. In 1797, a royal letters series credited the existing environmental legislation: all the forest on the coastal area or surrounding rivers that discharged immediately into the ocean, or any waterway that allowed barges transporting timber belonged to the Royal Portuguese Crown. Another important point in forests favor was the creation Judge of Conservation position, an authority who could enforce the penalties provided by the legislation. The penalties varied from fines, imprisonment, exile, and even capital punishment when there was criminal fires. At late 18^th century, the Timber Harvest Bylaws was created, establishing severe rules for trees cutting as well as other restrictions to agriculture.

From the 17^th to the 19^th century, deforestation was limited to the coastal area. In 1808, King Dom João VI created the first conservation unit - The Rio de Janeiro Royal Botanical Gardens, with more than 2,500 hectares. A Royal Decree from April, 09, 1809 gave freedom to any slave that denounced Brazilwood smugglers and a decree from August, 03, 1817 forbade the trees cutting in the areas surrounding the Carioca river spring. In 1830, after 300 years of Portuguese settlement, the total deforested area in Brazil was less than 30,000 square km. Nowadays, more timber than that is cut down every two years.

In 1844, after a severe drought, Minister Almeida Torres proposed land expropriation and tree plantations to protect the Rio de Janeiro water reservoir areas. In 1854 and 1856, farms were expropriated by the Minister Couto Ferraz, so that the area was devoted to conservation. In 1861, Tijuca and Paineiras Forests were created and planted by the Imperial Decree 577 from His Majesty Dom Pedro II. The protected area until now surrounds the Corcovado Mountain where the Cristo Redentor monument is located.

The present environmental thought and criticism in Brazil is a centennial historic continuity, a unique intellectual tradition. Through several mechanisms, the Portuguese and Brazilian Crown policy managed to keep the vegetation preserved until the 19^th century end. Different from Europe, Asia, Africa and even North and Central America (under European colonization), the deforestation in Brazil is a 20th century phenomenon. In only 10 years, between 1985 and 1995, the Atlantic Forest lost more than one million hectares, more than all the area deforested during the Portuguese 322 year domain period. At São Paulo, Santa Catarina and Paraná States the march to the west brought great deforestation. The Araucaria Pine Forests were donated by the Republic to the British-American railway constructors, along with the surrounding areas (15 to 30 km each railway side).

In the Amazon Basin, for over four centuries, the Humankind presence was limited to indigenous settlements, small villages and cities around the river embankments, conditioned by the extracting activity. The Amazon occupation occurred during the late 20^th century, including the migration, the population growth, the roads implementation, the hydro-electrical power plants building and other infrastructure facilities. In 30 years the deforestation rate varied from 15,000 to 20,000 square km with the highest rates - 29,000 and 26,000 - respectively in 1995 and 2003. This number decreased in the last two years, and now the rate is around 11,000 square km per year, according to INPE.

Despite some misplaced generalization, in the Southern States as well as in the Amazonian States, the deforestation isn't necessarily producing deserts, like it happened in a few African areas. As in the European countries, the Brazilian primary forest also gave place to high technology agriculture, competitive cattle raising and even productive planted forests (rubber, coffee, cacao, teka...).

The Embrapa study indicates that despite the last 30 years' deforestation, Brazil still is where the primary forest coverage is mostly maitained. Considering the original forests as 100%, Africa today has only 7.8% left; Asia has 5.6%; Central America has 9.7% and Europe, the worst, has only 0.3%. Although it is worth mentioning that there is an effort in Europe to re-forest the land for tourism and commercial purposes, it's impossible to ignore the fact that 99.7% of the primary European forests were replaced by cities, farm lands and commercial farming.

The continent that has mostly retained its forests is South America: 54.8% still intact. Due to the fact that Brazil comprises 69,4% of the continent primary forests, the country certainly can count on its great expertise to deal with this theme, facing the deforestation champions' criticism. One also needs to take into consideration the effective historical management and exploration acts revival, through public policies and long term practices, once they have granted the primary forests preservation in Brazil.

(*) - Doctor in Ecology, Embrapa Satelite Monitoring Center Director (mir@cnpm.embrapa.br)

People are becoming ever more concerned with the consumption of healthy foods, and life expectancy increases. A high cholesterol level has been identified as a risk factor in heart problems. Blood tests measure the levels of so-called "good" cholesterol (HDL) and "bad" cholesterol (LDL). LDL accumulates in the blood vessels, causing loss of elasticity and hardening of the arteries.

Based on erroneous information in misleading advertisements, some people believe that soybean oil contains cholesterol. These advertisements were removed by CONAR, the Brazilian Council for Self-Regulation of Advertisements.

In accordance with the Technical Evaluation Commission of the Ministry of Health's Food Sector, soybean oil and all vegetable oils do not contain cholesterol.

In accordance with a Reuters news item, the 38th Annual Conference on heart disease, epidemiology and prevention, held in New Mexico, U.S.A., disclosed the results of a study proving that soybeans reduce cholesterol. A reminder: soybeans contain no cholesterol.

Researchers at the Wake Forest University in North Carolina obtained empirical evidence that proves the theory published in "The New England Journal of Medicine" in 1995, whereby soybean consumption reduced cholesterol levels. One hundred and fifty-six patients with moderately high cholesterol levels (200-240 dg/ml) were divided into groups and monitored for nine weeks. Those that received a soy-based drink containing isoflavones, a group of substances found in soybeans that works as a "vegetable hormone", recorded a drop in cholesterol levels of up to ten percent. The patients that had a drink with no isoflavones showed no fall in cholesterol levels.