10 year anniversary of the Soy Moratorium

On 19 October 2016, an event dedicated to the 10 year anniversary of the Soy Moratorium was held in São Paolo, Brazil. The Soy Task Force (GTS) announced that soy not compliant with the Soy Moratorium represents only around 1% of the total deforested area in the Amazon Biome, showing the effectiveness of the public-private agreement as well as the very limited influence of soy production on illegal deforestation in that region over the past decade.

In its press release, ABIOVE (the Brazilian Vegetable Oil Industries Association) highlights the success of the Soy Moratorium in times when environmental legislation with adequate legal enforcement tools to combat illegal deforestation were still under development, most notably the Forest Code. The Soy Moratorium will stay in force until a rigid environmental governance mechanism that provides the necessary monitoring and protection of the region can take over. A vital part of this mechanism is the completion of the CAR (Rural Environmental Registration). December 2017 has been established as the new deadline for obtaining this registration. In commemoration of the 10 year anniversary of the Soy Moratorium, the Soy Task Force (GTS) published a video on how the Moratorium has worked as a powerful tool that allowed for expansion of agricultural production while upholding environmental protection. 

Alexander Döring, Secretary General of FEFAC, delivered a presentation on the implementation of the FEFAC action plan on responsible soy at an event on “partnerships for progress between the EU and Brazil” in Brussels on 20 October 2016. In a panel on the sustainability of Brazilian agriculture, he elaborated on the FEFAC Soy Sourcing Guidelines, which aim to bring transparency in the market of responsible soy and foster a mainstream market transition for physical supply of responsible soy to Europe. As of 20 October 2016, there are 15 responsible soy programmes positively benchmarked against the FEFAC Soy Sourcing Guidelines.