Argentine platform for deforestation-free soy
VISEC is a multisector initiative seeking an integrated solution to monitor the environmental and social impacts of the soy supply chain in the country.
Argentina will gain an online platform with monitoring and verification data on all the soybeans sold in the country, combining sustainability parameters and conditions for the grain to be sold, particularly to control land-use changes in the Gran Chaco region and to meet growing demands for traceability in international markets. Coordinated by the Argentine Edible Oil Association (CIARA/CEC), with contributions and participation by multiple actors, from producers to exporters and NGOs, implementation of the VISEC platform ("Sectoral Vision for the Argentine Gran Chaco") is one of the four projects supported by the Land Innovation Fund in the Gran Chaco biome, reaffirming the institution's commitment to fostering innovative solutions for some of today's biggest challenges on the environmental and agricultural agendas. Achievements and challenges in the development of the VISEC online platform were discussed last April 12th, during a press conference at the headquarters of the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange, in the Argentine capital, with the presence of the Fund and other partners in this initiative.
As the result of joint efforts by agricultural producers and associations, processors, exporters, civil society organizations, input and service suppliers, government and private-sector entities, academic organizations, and research institutions, VISEC is a multisector initiative seeking an integrated solution to reduce, monitor, and eliminate negative environmental and social impacts throughout the soy supply chain, ending deforestation and other forms of land-use change in priority areas for environmental conservation, such as the Gran Chaco. Once the platform is online (now scheduled to pilot by late 2023), Argentina will be able to ensure that all the soy it exports, particularly from the Gran Chaco, was grown in areas that were not deforested after January 2020.
The VISEC platform pulls together several of the soy supply chain's links into a common forum, with a shared goal: to foster environmentally responsible and economically viable agriculture. "CIARA's unprecedented initiative, in partnership with Peterson Control Union and the Rosario Board of Trade, and with support by many key institutions in Argentina's agricultural supply chain, is undeniably the key to aligning our grain production metrics with international environmental and climate agendas," says Carlos E. Quintela, director of the Land Innovation Fund. "VISEC's initiative forges into a single effort the Fund's three structural objectives: innovation through integrated solutions for farms, providing fundamental tools to promote sustainable and climate-smart soy supply chains, with zero deforestation and no conversion of native vegetation," he adds.
The platform will connect existing tools and databases developed by the public and private sectors to unify parameters, objectives, and requirements in the entire soy supply chain. This integration will allow VISEC to monitor, with georeferencing, the origin of every soybean produced in the Argentine Gran Chaco, from the field to the port for export. It will also verify impacts of grain production on local communities, enabling partnerships for positive actions whenever necessary.
Farm-scale information will be fed into the platform through an application with APIs tailor-made to integrate with private information systems, optimizing data collection and integration. "The platform will avoid duplicate information from more than one platform, accelerating and optimizing our environmental analyses," explains the president of CIARA/CEC, Gustavo Idigoras. "Today, georeferenced analyses and socio-environmental validations are only coordinated by private companies. With the tool, farmers will also have access to data from their own land, adding value to the grain in ever more demanding international markets," adds Idigoras.
Visit the initiative's website for more information
THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION LAW AND THE GRAN CHACO:
The Gran Chaco, Argentina's largest ecoregion, occupies 25% of the country's territory in 11 different states. The biome is home to 60% of the country's native vegetation, and the habitat for a wide variety of animal and plant species, in a territory occupied by several very diverse and culturally important native peoples. The expansion of the agricultural frontier, especially the expansion of soy plantations, has caused environmental, social, and economic losses to the region. The Gran Chaco has become of the world's deforestation hotspots, and one of the poorest and most environmentally sensitive areas in Latin America.
According to Argentina's Environmental Protection Law (n° 26331/2007), protected forest areas covering 9% of the country's territory are divided into three categories: high risk red areas, where land conversion is not allowed; medium risk yellow areas, where only silvopastoral activity is allowed; and green areas where any farming activity requires environmental impact studies authorized by state governments. Soybean production is restricted to low-risk green areas with prior authorization from the government, based on environmental risk analysis. "Less than 5% of the soy produced in Argentina comes from deforested areas, a percentage lower than in several other countries. We want to reach zero and build a deforestation-free grain supply chain. We know that only with a broad, multi-sector agreement like the one used to implement VISEC can we reach our goal," concludes Gustavo Idigoras.
THE LAND INNOVATION FUND'S GRAN CHACO PROJECT PORTFOLIO:
ENVIRONMENTAL AND PRODUCTIVE SUSTAINABILITY IN THE CHACO: Creating innovative and sustainable agricultural production models for the Gran Chaco region is the aim of the project by the Argentine Association of Regional Agricultural Experimentation Consortia (CREA), in partnership with the Argentine Soy Supply Chain Association (ACSOJA). The initiative works with at least 100 farmers in an area of about 250,000 hectares of the biome in Argentina and aims to establish and validate ecological agricultural intensification models that maintain or increase those farmers’ incomes, reduce crop losses, conserve natural areas within farms, provide for the restoration of degraded soils and environments, and apply environmental indicators, especially for soil carbon and biodiversity.
BEST AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES AND CARBON CAPTURE: The ProYungas Foundation, in partnership with the Argentine No-till Farmers' Association (AAPRESID) and the Moisés Bertoni Foundation, will support the adoption of best agricultural practices and stimulate the conservation and restoration of native vegetation on soy farms in the Gran Chaco biome, while also mitigating climate change and adding value to standing forests. The project will be implemented in five pilot soy farms in Argentina and Paraguay, on at least 150,000 hectares, to quantify carbon emissions from production activities, to evaluate the carbon stock in native vegetation, to categorize farms as carbon emitters or as off-setters of carbon emissions from native vegetation, with international accreditation, and to develop an online information platform that ensures transparency for the projects.
SUSTAINABLE SOY IN THE PARAGUAYAN AND BOLIVIAN GRAN CHACO | Solidaridad Regional: The project will use a multisector approach to identify and define criteria and protocols for sustainable soy in the Gran Chaco region and then translate the consensus into technological and regulatory tools for innovation adapted to local needs, in dialogue with similar initiatives in neighboring Argentina and with the European Union’s international sustainability agenda. Working in partnership with local institutions such as the National Association of Oilseed and Wheat Producers (ANAPO) in Bolivia and the Association of Farmers for a Sustainable Chaco (APACs) in Paraguay, the initiative will pave the way to developing and delivering innovative solutions in a variety of dimensions such as public policy, compliance verification systems and tools, and governance.
VISEC’s GRAN CHACO MONITORING PLATFORM: As described above, this proposal is under the responsibility of the Argentine Edible Oil Association (CIARA), in partnership with Peterson-Control Union (PCU) and the Rosario Board of Trade. They are developing an innovative traceability and monitoring platform to assess environmental, social, and economic impacts of producing soy and other commodities in priority areas of Argentina, starting with the Gran Chaco. The VISEC platform will combine monitoring and verification data into a single system for all the soy traded in Argentina, covering relevant sustainability parameters and requirements for grain sales. The initiative enjoys the contributions and engagement of different actors, from producers to exporters and NGOs, and intends to generate transparent, reliable, and publicly accessible data, in order to produce and sell essential goods in an environmentally sustainable way, especially soy and its by-products.