MT adds R$520 million in PCI strategy projects: sustainable evolution | RDNEWS

The Produce, Conserve and Include (PCI) strategy has already guaranteed investments of around R$520 million to implement projects and actions in municipalities in the state of Mato Grosso. The initiative is a commitment between the State Government, city halls, international organizations and private and third sector entities.

The resources have different origins and destinations and support local actions in the three axes of the strategy, being complementary to achieving the agreed goals. To achieve the goals and make the benefits reach the ground, a regionalization strategy was put into practice, with the implementation of PCI Pacts. Currently, four initiatives are implemented in the state.

According to the executive director of the PCI Institute, Richard Smith, this strategy positions Mato Grosso on the international stage as a state that produces food, while conserving native vegetation and promoting social inclusion. “The proof of this is that in the 2022/2023 harvest, the state passed the mark of 100 million tons of grains (such as soybeans and corn, among others) maintaining more than 60% of its territory with native vegetation”.

Smith highlights that the work carried out by the PCI Strategy proves that Mato Grosso is capable of receiving investments to continue producing while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. “In 2025, during COP30 in Brazil, we will be able to present the PCI as a viable and pragmatic path to achieving the goal of neutrality in carbon emissions by 2035, in accordance with the commitment launched by Governor Mauro Mendes and the Secretary of State for the Environment, Mauren Lazaretti, at COP 26, in Glasgow”.

The executive secretary of the Barra do Garças PCI Pact, Luciano Bonaccini, explains that the proposal was so well accepted by the population that the municipality has already managed to establish all the necessary legal framework so that the actions can move forward and attract new partners and investments. Currently, the strategy has around 50 members.

“One of the most important works, in partnership with IDH, was the hiring of a forestry engineer who works on regularizing the CAR (Rural Environmental Registry). With this, we were able to register 96% of rural properties, an important advance because without the CAR it is not possible to develop any type of project. Another strong partnership is with Empaer to offer support in family farming”, says Bonaccini.

The PCI executive secretary in Tangará da Serra, Bethânia Valentino Santos, highlights the progress of work in the region made up of six municipalities in the state’s “PCI West Pact”, which have a large territorial extension and a great diversity of production and interests.

“We have a good representation of the state of Mato Grosso in 6 municipalities, since in the region there is a strong expansion in the sustainable production of commodities, large indigenous territories, livestock farming and there are also many family farming and traditional communities. Despite all the differences, everyone sits at the table to talk and set joint goals”, says Bethânia.

Leonir Sell, Municipal Secretary of Agriculture Juruena, a municipality that is part of the PCI Vale do Juruena Pact, together with Cotriguaçu, says he is very satisfied with the PCI’s actions, which have prioritized technical monitoring for environmental issues and land regularization. He mentions that one of the emblematic situations, more than 20 years ago, will finally “unfold”, which is the land regularization of the Vale do Amanhecer settlement, a partnership between PCI, IDH and INCRA.

“With the PCI, we are breaking the resistance of a part of the population in relation to environmental issues, which has allowed several projects to advance in the area of ​​livestock farming, and in the integration of forestry, livestock farming and agriculture”, says Sell.

In Sorriso, it has been challenging to put the strategy “on the ground”, as described by Emanuele Oslen, executive secretary of the municipality’s PCI Pact. “We have the support of a Producer Support Center, but we still need to make a lot of progress, especially in communication with society and legal regulation”.

Alex Schmidt, public policy implementation manager at IDH (an organization that invests in the PCI strategy and Regional Pacts), emphasizes that the PCI was fundamental for this volume of resources to be able to finance important projects in Mato Grosso, such as the Support Centers to the Rural Producer (CAPs), Sustainable Calf Production Program, in the Juruena, Araguaia and Pantanal Valleys, Sustainable Productive Landscapes, in the West Consortium, and Cultivating Sustainable Life, in Sorriso.

These are actions carried out and led by several partners that include financiers such as Marfrig, IDH itself, Soft Commodities Forum, Consumer Goods Forum (Nestlé, Jerônimo Martins and Sainsburys) and Land Innovation Fund, Carrefour and Cargill. “We understand that we will only be able to guide the next steps, connecting partners, markets and society”, says Schmidt.

On April 16, PCI members met in Cuiabá to take stock of the actions during the 1st Strategy Regionalization Workshop, with the aim of strengthening connections and inspiring the work of those involved. Representatives from the Government of Mato Grosso, city halls, rural and private entities, traditional communities and indigenous peoples, universities and the third sector, such as GIZ, IPAM, TNC, were present.

About PCI

Mato Grosso launched the ‘Strategy: Produce, Conserve and Include’ at the Paris Climate Convention (COP 21) in 2015, with the aim of raising resources to strengthen agricultural and forestry production, conserving the remnants of native vegetation, the recomposition of environmental liabilities and the socioeconomic inclusion of family farming and indigenous peoples, all with the reduction of emissions through the control of illegal deforestation and the development of a low-carbon economy. Learn more about the strategy and goals: http://pci.mt.gov.br/