DUBAI — On Dec. 1 at COP28 (The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference) in Dubai, the governor of Pará Helder Barbalho announced plans to enhance transparency and traceability in the livestock supply chain in the Brazilian Amazon through the adoption of mandatory animal identification in the state by 2026.

"Today we take an important step by partnering with private funds to launch this initiative, aiming to have 100% of the state's cattle tagged for individual traceability from birth to slaughter by 2026,” Barbalho said. “This ensures, on one hand, integrity and transparency for the productive chain in the region. It also needs to be done with support for the producer, enabling them to access the benefits that this traceability provides, opening up markets.”

JBS S.A. is leading a pilot project focused on implementing individual cattle traceability in Pará, Brazil, to accelerate the adoption of the Pará Plan. The company is investing $9 million over the next three years to support mandatory traceability and improve the livelihood of small producers in the Amazon region.

The pilot project will help smallholders offset the cost of animal identification tags and provide technical assistance to help producers make a living in the Amazon without deforestation.

“Today’s announcement from the government of Pará is a turning point in the fight against deforestation,” said Gilberto Tomazoni, chief executive officer of JBS Global. “JBS offers its full and unequivocal support of this effort as we believe full traceability with government support is critical to eliminating deforestation. Recognizing that one of the greatest drivers of deforestation is the lack of economic opportunity for local producers, JBS has already begun providing financial assistance and technical expertise to producers to tag and track cattle in Marabá, and ensuring extension services are available to producers across the state through four JBS Green Offices.”

The following are a few highlights of the initiatives currently underway through JBS investments:

• $1 million to support individual traceability of cattle, providing direct economic assistance to small producers to help pay for ID tags at the farm level.

• The establishment of four JBS Green Offices in Pará, which provide technical expertise, extension services and animal traceability services to producers. By 2026, the Green Office program will receive an additional $600,000 in investments, facilitating the regularization of thousands of producers through the Sustainable Territories Platform, a state government program designed to scale and effectively implement low-carbon socioeconomic development initiatives in Pará.

• $76,000 through JBS’s Farm Grade 10 Program, an initiative to improve management and productivity on livestock farms. Focused on small producers, the program offers training for high-performance management, with the goal to maximize performance of cattle farms in Pará without forest clearing.

• $7 million through the JBS Fund for the Amazon, to support two projects that will serve more than 5,000 families in the Legal Amazon, starting in Pará.