In June 2019, the municipality formalized the PCI Compact, a voluntary agreement signed by 35 actors, from the public, private, civil society, and farmers, with goals in the areas of Production, Conservation and Inclusion, which establishes a long-term territorial governance model to promote sustainable development.

The second stage of this structuring took place on December 23 last year, with the publication of Municipal Law No. 4.156, which formalized the creation of the Program, the Council and the Barra do Garças Produce, Conserve and Include Fund. Linked to the Secretariat of Industry, Commerce and Rural Development, the Barra do Garças PCI Program is a multi-stakeholder sustainable management and development instrument, with strong participation of the organized civil society, government and entities state, federal and international, and private sector.

The main city in the Araguaia Valley, Barra do Garças has an economic diversity that goes beyond agribusiness, including services and products related to tourism, with natural and cultural attractions.

In view of that, the objective of the municipal PCI Program is to foster public policies, implement projects, raise funds aiming to integrate small-, medium- and large-scale farmers with a focus on increasing the quality and sustainability of production chains, of rural tourism and ethno-tourism, combined with the preservation and conservation of natural resources.

This inter-institutional articulation was directly supported by IDH (Sustainable Trade Initiative) and its implementing partner, TNC (The Nature Conservancy), for local mobilization and technical support. “Having the active participation of the public sector, supported by the different actors in the municipality, in building a long-term vision for local sustainable development is extremely important and has been key to reach this result. 2019 was a year of hard work and building solid foundations so that, in 2020, we could work on the implementation of the proposed actions”, points out Guilherme Justo, manager of the IDH Brazil Program.

Acrimat’s representative in the Araguaia region, Maria Ester Tiziani Fava estimates that this initiative will enhance the scale implementation of Good Agricultural Practices by promoting differentiated production, especially beef. “We will be together for whatever is required in this process. We will try to help some farmers with the intensification of production in areas that have already been opened and that are currently degraded and, thus, avoiding illegal deforestation”, adds Téia – as she is known.

The next step is to regulate Law 4.156/2019 through Municipal Decrees that will consolidate the Program governance format, including the members of the Management Council. To do so, an extended meeting is being scheduled for March.

“In 2020, TNC and IDH will together support the municipality in consolidating this process, through the regulation of the governance structure in the municipality and support in the articulation of current projects in Barra do Garças, which can contribute to meeting the established goals. In addition, we will support the structuring of a project portfolio and the continuous articulation between local actors, in order to further strengthen the created governance”, reinforced Raimunda Mello, Conservation specialist and Coordinator of the construction process of the Barra do Garças PCI Compact by TNC Brazil.
 

Impact:

The local PCI program aims to promote sustainable development in Araguaia Valley, Barra do Garças. Being economically diverse, the city can be supported by this program in various complex ways. These include raising funds so that all types of farmers can be integrated, increasing the quality of the production chains, promoting differentiated production, preservation of natural resources and many more.