- The announcement was made in the seminar “Sustainable cattle for the Peruvian amazon” that had the participation of leaders of the roundtables for sustainable beef from Paraguay and Bolivia, officials from subnational government from the Peruvian amazon, the Ministry of Agricultural Development of Peru, and other civil society organizations.
The production of beef from tropical areas has increased by 46% in the period of 2001-2018 and currently accounts for 37% of the world production. Globally, livestock farming is an activity that generates GHG emissions from enteric fermentation, the use of agrochemicals, and the change of use and soil degradation, among others. In Peru, the livestock subsector represents 5.88% of emissions from the national total (explained by enteric fermentation and manure management).
Aiming to address these issues, the seminar “Sustainable cattle for the Peruvian amazon” was held in Lima, Peru on May 18, 2023, with over 70 participants from government, business, and civil society organizations from the tropical cattle sector. Alfred Fast, from the Paraguayan Roundtable on Sustainable Beef, was the main speaker of the event. Producers, representatives of slaughterhouses, officials of national and subnational governments also participated as speakers and panelists, to talk about the challenges and potentials of sustainable livestock for the Peruvian amazon.
An important milestone in the seminar, was the presentation of the Alliance for a Regenerative Cattle in the Peruvian Amazon (AGRAP). This initiative, hosted by the Coalition for a Sustainable Production and promoted by the Tropical Forest Alliance, and other organizations, is a community of practice that designs, promotes and communicates actions in the cattle sector based on a shared vision. The AGRAP has the challenge to improve quality and sustainability (e.g., through regenerative attributes and deforestation-free production); recognizing the potential and dynamics of the landscape where the activity is carried out, and promoting the improvement of the well-being of the local producers and the productive chains. Currently the AGRAP is formed by: Frigorífico Manu, Mafrox, The Technical Board of Cattle of Madre de Dios, The Climate Group; the Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA), the Earth Innovation Institute, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Conservation International (CI) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation of Peru.
During the afternoon, a workshop led by TFA, outlined the inputs for an action plan of the AGRAP and the exchange of information to promote competitiveness and sustainability of the value chain. Some of the activities considered were productivity improvement, market development, traceability, enabling of conditions, monitoring, and knowledge management.
"The General Directorate of Livestock is committed to promote the sustainability of tropical Peruvian livestock, especially in the development of silvopasture systems, genetic improvement, and through collaboration agreements with cooperation partners, some of them linked to AGRAP" - Marco Enciso, Director General of Livestock, Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation.
"To achieve an adequate business environment for sustainable, deforestation-free and regenerative tropical cattle, a multi-stakeholder platform like AGRAP is required, especially to work on issues such as the development of new markets and financing of the supply chain" – Renato Portillo, Commercial and Operations Manager, MAFROX
“I believe that Peruvian tropical cattle is a sector that has been little explored, but has an immense potential to be a bioeconomy or nature-based solution, as well as deforestation-free. This new initiative of the Coalition for Sustainable Production, which is a space that TFA supports, will catalyze the commitment of various actors to increase the competitiveness and sustainability of this emerging productive chain”- Daniel Coronel, Coordinator for Peru, Tropical Forest Alliance.
The event was organized by WWF, The Climate Group and TFA, in the framework of the project Fostering deforestation-free cattle ranching in Madre de Dios, Peru supported by the Government of United Kingdom, and allies such as Conservation International, Proforest and MDA.
