Tocantins, a critical state within the Brazilian Cerrado, holds 13.9 million hectares of remaining native vegetation but faces mounting pressure from agricultural expansion and a large area still eligible for legal clearing. This initiative supports a jurisdictional approach that aligns sustainable production, climate goals, and long-term territorial resilience. Through strengthened multi‑stakeholder governance, it brings together state agencies, municipalities, producers, civil society, and private sector actors to coordinate policies and actions.

The program drives adoption of climate‑smart, low‑carbon agricultural practices that can reduce emissions, improve productivity, restore degraded lands, and minimize pressure for new deforestation. It also accelerates Forest Code implementation by supporting CAR validation, PRA execution, and scalable restoration pathways, improving legal certainty and supply chain resilience.

By integrating sustainable agriculture, forest protection, and large‑scale restoration, the initiative positions Tocantins to contribute significantly to Brazil’s climate and biodiversity targets while creating economic opportunities and a resilient rural economy.

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The Brazilian Cerrado exhibits key challenges associated with rapid agricultural development. Nearly 50% of native Cerrado vegetation has already been converted to agriculture. The state of Tocantins contains 13.9 million hectares (ha) of remaining native vegetation. Of this total, approximately 9.2 million ha are savanna formations, and 4.7 million ha are forest formations (MapBiomas, 2024). The Cerrado Biome accounts for 92% of this native vegetation, with less than 7% classified as part of the Amazon Biome (MapBiomas 2024). The remaining natural Cerrado in Tocantins is highly vulnerable: 63% is on private land and 3.6 million ha can be legally cleared according to Environmental Secretariat of Tocantins (Cigma).  Conflicting views over remaining natural lands have contributed to tense social and political discourse, as agriculturalists view Tocantins as a land of opportunity, while conservationists view Tocantins as a last frontier to be saved from conversion.

While the threats from agriculture are clear, recent analysis show that the right agriculture in the right places is essential to achieving the Paris Climate Agreement The ABC Action Plan establishes a mitigation target of 39.58 million MgCO₂eq for Tocantins for the 2020–2030 period . The Brazil's agricultural research agency EMBRAPA has developed climate-smart agricultural practices that can contribute directly to these goals. Implementation of these Low Carbon Agriculture practices (ABC by their acronym in Portuguese) has reduced GHG emissions, increased yields, and boosted farm resiliency. The National ABC Action Plan sets a mitigation target of 1.07 Gt CO₂eq for the 2020–2030 period, which corresponds to roughly 20% of the global mitigation potential 5.2 Gt CO₂eq estimated in the IPCC AR4 assessment. Widespread adoption of these practices coupled with agricultural expansion into Tocantins's 1.9 million ha of degraded land (MapBiomas, 2024) and conservation of the state’s remaining natural vegetation could demonstrate that climate smart agriculture and conservation together can deliver essential natural climate solutions for people and nature.

In addition, the state faces a significant challenge, and a corresponding opportunity, to advance the effective implementation of the Brazilian Forest Code. In most of the state, the legislation requires the maintenance of 35% native vegetation as Legal Reserve on private properties,, depending on the context, it may also be possible to account the Permanent Preservation Areas (APPs) for the Legal Reserve (RL) requirement. Ensuring full implementation of the Forest Code is therefore essential to restoring previously converted native vegetation and to advancing the environmental regularization of farmers— a critical step for strengthening legal certainty and enhancing the resilience of commodity supply chains. Currently, approximately 850,000 hectares of Legal Reserve and APP areas require restoration in the state, underscoring Tocantins’ substantial potential for large-scale native vegetation recovery (CIGMA, 2025).

Unfortunately, this vision of sustainable, climate-smart agricultural development, together with native vegetation protection and restoration is not being realized due to inter-related factors including:

• Lack of appropriate dialogue forums necessary to explore and align upon alternative visions for agriculture, conservation and sustainable rural development in Tocantins. Brazil's NBSAP (National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan) and its ABC+ 2020-2030 strategy, which feeds into Brazil's NDC, establish national targets for conservation and climate-smart agriculture. However, poor communication and coordination between sectors and levels of government means that local government does not see the potential synergies between policy targets nor have the resources to pursue joint implementation. Local stakeholders do not have forums to share the needs and aspirations of their communities and explore collaboration with other sectors. Together, these factors fuel further isolation, frustration, reduce cross-sectoral collaboration and stifle progress towards national targets. 
• Farmers lack adequate incentives to move away from business-as-usual land development and agricultural practices, including incentives to restore degraded areas and to conserve native vegetation that they are legally allowed to convert. Current farming practices, even if sub-optimal, are typically profitable for farmers and there are no incentives to take risks in implementing new farming practices that could increase yield and profitability and increase soil carbon sequestration and improve crop resilience. Farmers with natural vegetation on-farm beyond the requirements of legal compliance have no incentive to conserve.
• Gaps in capacity needed to implement known solutions and drive scale of adoption. EMBRAPA's ABC practices can be good for farmers' bottom line, the climate and the environment. However, there is no extension network to disseminate these technologies widely nor tell the success stories of farmers that have adopted them. Furthermore, credit lines that might create incentives for farmers to adopt ABC practices are not accessed by local banks in Tocantins, making them difficult and cumbersome to access.
• Delays in CAR validation and PRA implementation are slowing Forest Code compliance. Capacity constraints within government institutions and state regulatory agencies, combined with the limitations of traditional command-and-control approaches, have hindered effective implementation of the Forest Code in Tocantins — including the verification of landholders’ environmental liabilities and their subsequent regularization. This has delayed native vegetation restoration efforts across the state and generated uncertainty for commodity supply chains.

The net result is a “business-as-usual” development trajectory across Tocantins, with agricultural expansion driving continued conversion of Cerrado vegetation, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, and land conflict. This trajectory prevents the state from positioning itself as a benchmark for sustainable development in the Brazilian Cerrado — an opportunity that could be realized through effective and strategic collaboration among federal, state, and local governments; private sector actors operating in the state; downstream buyers; civil society organizations; research institutions; rural producers; and other key stakeholders.

This initiative addresses these challenges by implementing the following main workstreams:

1. Improvement of Governance Through Cross-sector Collaboration: The state government lacked a structured forum to coordinate action with local stakeholders and articulate a shared strategic vision for sustainable development, while stakeholders themselves had no dedicated space to express community needs or explore cross-sector collaboration. The initiative has addressed this gap by establishing multi-stakeholder platforms that convene public authorities, private sector actors, civil society, research institutions, and producers to strengthen alignment and clarify roles and responsibilities in the design and implementation of policies and regulations. At the state level, through the Green Commodities Programme (implemented in partnership with UNDP and funded by SECO), the initiative supported the reactivation of the State Low-Carbon Agriculture Action Plan Management Group and has initiated the establishment of a state-level Sustainable Agriculture Forum. At the municipal level, it has advanced engagement processes and cooperation agreements with priority municipalities. By institutionalizing these coordination spaces, the initiative bridges the gap between policymakers, producers, and market actors, fostering a shared vision that aligns long-term sustainability ambitions with practical implementation pathways.
2. Enabling the Adoption of Low-Carbon and Regenerative Agricultural Practices: Despite Brazil’s robust institutional framework for climate mitigation and adaptation — including the Ministry of Agriculture’s Low-Carbon Agriculture Plan (ABC Plan), which defines sectoral pathways and provides dedicated credit lines to support the adoption of low-carbon practices — uptake among farmers remains limited. Access to ABC credit lines is still low, dissemination of technical knowledge through extension services is insufficient, and financial institutions often lack the information and capacity required to effectively support producers transitioning to climate-smart agriculture. The initiative seeks to address these barriers by strengthening technical assistance, expanding awareness and access to existing financial instruments, and positioning low-carbon agriculture and livestock practices as a practical entry point toward more regenerative production systems. When combined with strengthened governance and coordinated landscape planning, improved land management can increase productivity, reduce pressure for further land conversion, enable land sparing for conservation and restoration, and enhance landscape connectivity, generating benefits for producers, local communities, and climate resilience. 
3. Accelerating Forest Code Implementation and Environmental Regularization: This workstream seeks to accelerate the effective implementation of the Brazilian Forest Code in Tocantins by addressing institutional, technical, and financial bottlenecks that delay environmental regularization. Through coordinated support to municipalities, state authorities, commodity companies operating in the territory, and rural producers, the initiative promotes practical solutions to advance CAR validation, PRA implementation, and farmer compliance. It also supports the development of tools and local policy instruments that streamline regularization processes, reduce uncertainty, and unlock restoration opportunities, strengthening legal certainty and enhancing the sustainability and resilience of commodity supply chains.
4. Advancing Enabling Conditions for Sustainable Production, Conservation, and Restoration: Beyond targeted technical interventions, this workstream focuses on strengthening the state’s enabling environment for sustainable production, native vegetation protection, and large-scale restoration. The initiative works in close coordination with the state government to advance the implementation of key public policies that underpin Tocantins’ long-term sustainable development strategy, including the State Low-Carbon Agriculture Action Plan, the State Plan for Native Vegetation Recovery, the Tocantins Competitive and Sustainable Strategy (ESTOCS), and other relevant policy frameworks. By aligning institutional priorities, strengthening implementation capacity, and fostering coherence across sectoral agendas, the initiative supports the consolidation of a policy environment capable of driving systemic transformation across the territory.
5. Reducing Legal Deforestation and Strengthening Incentives for Native Vegetation Conservation: Given the significant potential for legal deforestation within private properties in the Brazilian Cerrado, this workstream aims to create positive incentives for the conservation of native vegetation and the reduction of further habitat conversion. Through strengthened multi-stakeholder platforms, the initiative reinforces the value of natural capital for long-term productivity and territorial resilience, while fostering collaboration among government authorities, producers, communities, and private sector actors to develop landscape strategies that accommodate production growth without expanding into new native areas. In partnership with aligned initiatives and financial actors, the program seeks to mobilize additional incentives for on-farm conservation and restoration. Results and tangible on-farm benefits generated by leading producers will be documented and strategically disseminated through targeted communications, stakeholder platforms, and farmer-to-farmer networks, demonstrating viable alternatives to continued land conversion and showcasing the economic and environmental value of low-carbon practices, pasture recovery, soil and water conservation, assisted natural regeneration, and ecological restoration.