MEETING WILL BRING TOGETHER SPECIALISTS TO DISCUSS COMMITMENTS AND ACTIONS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION
The main legal solutions for the financing of environmental conservation actions linked to the mitigation of climate change will be debated by specialists this Wednesday, February 16, at the Centro de Estudo e Aperfeiçoamento Funcional do Ministério Público, in Belém. With the theme "Economic and financial instruments for the short, medium and long term as a way to support the climate goals adopted by Brazil", the initiative brings together civil society organizations, members of the Public Ministry and researchers and is part of the Dialogues for Climate cycle, which integrates the COPAÍBAS Program - Traditional Communities, Indigenous Peoples and Protected Areas in the Amazon and Cerrado Biomes.
The event will be opened by Godofredo dos Santos, justice advocate and coordinator of the Center for Environmental Operational Support/MPE, José Edvaldo Pereira Sales, also a justice advocate and Director of the Center for Studies and Functional Assessment, and Andréia Mello, coordinator of the Climate Dialogues. On the occasion, a partnership will be signed between FUNBIO (Brazilian Biodiversity Fund), responsible for the technical and financial execution of the COPAÍBAS Program, and the Public Ministry of the State of Pará (MPPA), aiming to promote debates between justice system professionals and civil society, creating networks and generating understanding on ways to confront climate change.
"The objective of the Dialogues for Climate is to capture the debate on commitments and actions to confront climate change, presenting successful experiences and expanding actions that can be directed in the legal sphere for environmental conservation and the fight against deforestation," says Andréia. "The initiative started online, in 2022, and this year it is being taken to a face-to-face format. This meeting in Belém will promote a very rich exchange of experiences, with great diversity. We are already promoting similar discussions in Maranhão and we also intend to sign agreements with the Public Ministries of other states", he adds.
Alexandre Pacheco/MPPA 
Alexandre Pacheco/MPPA
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
More than ten years after the beginning of the Legal Meat Program, which provides for the signing of the Terms of Conduct Adjustment (TACs) between the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) and the state meat processing plants, nine meat companies are 100% in compliance with the agreement of not buying cattle from illegally deforested lands or from indigenous lands and conservation units. On the other hand, 11 other slaughterhouses that signed TACs did not submit their audits. The data were disclosed in December 2022 and will be used to guide the next steps of the Public Prosecutor's Office in tracking irregular grazing in the state.
To talk about these challenges, the Attorney General of the Republic in the state of Amazonas and coordinator of the Amazônia Legal WG Rafael Rocha participates in the panel "Actions in the territory to combat deforestation". According to him, "meat traceability is a slow process, with advances and setbacks, but we are certainly in a much better situation than in 2009, when the first TACs were signed".
The panel "Climate change, commitments and actions", with the participation of USP researcher Luiza Muccillo, will discuss, among others, topics such as the incentive known as REDD+. This is a program created by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in which rich countries financially compensate developing countries that manage to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
In addition, some of the results obtained when technology and the fight against deforestation are combined will be presented. One of them will be the case presented by Imazon researcher Paulo Amaral in the panel Data and tools for climate monitoring.
