JBS has unveiled its Together for the Amazon programme, a series of long-term initiatives to promote conservation and sustainable development in the Amazon biome.
The programme consists of four pillars: development of the value chain; forest conservation and restoration; support for local communities in the Amazon; and scientific research and technology development.
The first pillar is comprised of three initiatives, including a blockchain platform that is expected to enable JBS to track the suppliers of its cattle suppliers by 2025.
The JBS Green Platform will cross reference data regarding the company’s suppliers with livestock transportation data.
The technology will enable JBS to extend the socio-environmental criteria that it applies to its suppliers in the Amazon further, including to those providing direct suppliers with calves and feeder cattle.
JBS says that its existing supplier monitoring system in the Amazon, developed over the past decade, has enabled the commercial embargo of suppliers who are non-compliant with the company’s procurement policies.
The second initiative in the value chain pillar consists of sharing this technology and JBS’s responsible sourcing policy with financial institutions and other companies who want to improve sustainability in the Amazon. These could include livestock farmers, family farmers, or anyone in the agribusiness sector or wider food industry.
“Over the last decade, we have made significant investments to establish one of the world’s largest private supplier monitoring systems,” said Wesley Batista Filho, CEO of JBS South America and Seara.
Under the third initiative, JBS will provide legal, environmental and livestock husbandry advisory services to help producers improve the stewardship of their land.
The company has also announced the creation of the JBS Fund for The Amazon, which will finance initiatives and projects promoting forest conservation and restoration, sustainable socioeconomic development of communities, and scientific research and technology development.
JBS will contribute R$250 million ($44.87 million approx.) over the first five years and will invite its stakeholders to participate, with the commitment to match third-party contributions. The total funding target is R$1 billion ($179.39 million approx.) by 2030.
“Curbing illegal deforestation is a key challenge to defending the Amazon. This challenge can only be effectively met by focusing on the quality of life and economic opportunities for the population of the region, especially the indigenous and riverine peoples and the quilombola communities who live there,” says Joanita Maestri Karoleski, president of the Fund.
“We believe in the possibility of a sustaining Amazon, because we know that environmental preservation and socioeconomic development are intimately linked.”
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