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Low Carbon Agriculture Plan of Brazil

Last updated: 3 June, 2011

This plan is still under formulation by government agencies and Brazilian civil society. It will work from the date it comes int0 force (from its publication in the Official Diary, by decree) until 2020. The overall objective of the plan is to ensure continuous and sustainable improvement of management practices that reduce greenhouse gases emissions. Additionally, it aims to increase the CO2  atmospheric fixation by vegetation and soil in the Brazilian agriculture sectors. As specific objectives the plan aims to contribute to achieving the overall goals undertaken voluntarily by the Brazilian government, promote efforts to achieve zero illegal deforestation of forests; to encourage favourable production arrangements that ensure emissions’ reduction, while simultaneously raise farmers' income; studies of adaptation to new plants in Brazil warming scenarios with sustainability in food production over the next 10 years; and  the use of technologies for energy and compost from the swine waste treatment. 

The plan has four main components: (i) Retrieve an area of 15 million hectares of degraded pastures through proper management and fertilization, which corresponds to a reduction of between 83 to 104 million tonnes CO2 eq [by] 2020; (ii) Increasing the area with the integrated Crop-Livestock-Forest systems to 4 million hectares, reducing between 18 to 22 million tonnes CO2 eq.; (iii) Expand the use of the system of direct planting on 8 million hectares, corresponding to the reduction of 16 to 20 million tonnes CO2 eq.; (iv) Expand the use of biological fixation in 5.5 million hectares, corresponding to a reduction of 16 to 20 million tonnes CO2 eq.  

Further, in order to support the deforestation reduction goals (80% for the Amazon and 40% for the Cerrado by 2020) the Agriculture Plan will expand the reforested area currently used to produce fibres, wood pulp and 6.0 million hectares to 9.0 million hectares, contributing to the reduction of 8 to 10 million tonnes of CO2 eq. and, promoting the generation of energy and compost from the swine waste treatment in 80% of family farms in the south region, corresponding to a reduction of 6.9 million tonnes CO2 eq . Moreover, the plan has a special sub-programme dedicated to adaptation to climate change

Elements of REDD

Management and coordination

The implementation of the Agriculture Plan will be coordinated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Cattle and Supply (MAPA), and implemented in conjunction with the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA), Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Finance. The implementation of such actions will also count with the support of The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA), the Departments of Agriculture of the states and municipalities and sectorial entities (public and private). The plan will also have a Permanent Inter-ministerial Working Group, constituted by presidential decree in order to assess the implementation of actions and propose further measures as may be necessary to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. This group will consist of representatives of the Civil House (who will coordinate the group), the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA), the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA), the Ministry of Environment (MMA) and the Ministry of Finance (MF). At the state level, State Manager Groups will be formed with the task of promoting the coordination and linkage of the Agriculture Plan at the state level. This group will be coordinated by the representative of MAPA and / or MDA, with the participation of State Departments of Agriculture, Agricultural Development Department and Environment Department of EMBRAPA, State Organizations of Agricultural Research, Official Banks (Bank of Brazil, Banco da Amazonia and / or Banco do Nordeste) and integrated by representatives of civil society (productive sector, workers, research, cooperatives, federation of agriculture, etc.).

Stakeholder engagement and participation

An executive committee will be created in order to track and monitor periodically the implementation of the plan and propose measures to overcome any difficulties in this process. All the ministries engaged with this plan will participate in the executive committee as well as the Brazilian Forum on Climate Change (with accounts from representatives from the civil society, governments and public institutions). The Agriculture Plan has been prepared with the most engagement with the civil society compared to other plans. Many stakeholders have been involved from the beginning and many of the activities related to reforestation and promoting the zero illegal deforestation presented in the actual version of the plan were contributions made by environmental NGOs present during the discussions of the plan. 

Rights and tenure

The plan foresees a series of activities related to land tenure and environmental tenure but at this stage do not provide the level of details of those activities. 

Compliance (incentives and enforcement)

There is no information about it at this stage.

Reference level

The proposal is that Embrapa does the detailing of the projected scenarios when drafting the law, while the coordinating body of the Climate Network - Agriculture, shall also be responsible for the calculation methodologies used for accounting reductions, including identification of data sources and how to collect, analyze and archive data, and the development and publication of the methodologies used for calculating reductions. Regarding the system of MRV and conducting periodic assessments of commitment progress, the creation of the Virtual Centre for Climate Change and Agriculture is proposed, to be established through a partnership between Embrapa, Universidade Estadual de Campinas - Unicamp and other institutions, members of Climate Network. The Centre would thus be responsible for receiving the information necessary for calculating emissions reductions and reporting them to the institution responsible for national registry. At this stage no further details about the reference level have been provided.

Safeguards

The Agriculture Sector Plan covers actions that involve the training of technicians and producers, technology transfer, research and development, lines of credit, land tenure and environmental tenure and availability of inputs. It also aims to generate incentives to sustainable production, implement actions for a sustainable agricultural policy, and develop sustainable productive models.

MRV

For the components relating to the recovering of degraded pastures, and Integrated systems of Crop-Livestock-Forest, the monitoring will be done by satellite images and in situ monitoring. For the Biological Nitrogen Fixation (BNF) component, emissions reductions will be calculate using information about the amount of inoculants sold by season,  obtained from companies. If necessary, other information about the use of inoculants could be used e.g.: Data Proagro (Central Bank of Brazil - Central Bank) data from rural credit costing (BCB), and systematic surveys of crop Conab and / or IBGE. For the Tillage in the Straw, as it will be impossible to use satellite imagery to monitor this action, the calculation of emission reductions can be made from direct or indirect information about the area with direct planting. In the case of direct information, these must be obtained from the registration of properties and georeferencing of crop fields, with the areas under tillage being registered at each harvest. For indirect information, the Virtual Centre for Climate Change and Agriculture shall collect data from the diverse sources. The monitoring for the Power Generation and Organic Compound through the animal waste treatment, will be through the power purchase contracts or methodologies validated by EMBRAPA. Also it will need on-site monitoring through periodic visits to a sample of properties. This complementary survey should be done by the network of monitoring points, in partnership with state research agencies and rural extension agencies, or other entities that have relation with the sector.