Brazil embraces the resumption of growth in a new era for the world. The new agenda is broad, and no issue reveals as much about our future as the development model we choose for the Amazon.
With the importance of the biome in mind, just over a year ago, the three largest private banks in the country joined forces with the aim of contributing in a proactive manner, with concrete actions that relate to our activities in the financial sector, involving, for example, other companies and society in general.
The Amazon Plan was born there, as we named the initiative that had as its starting point a list of ten commitments aimed at the structured and sustainable development of the Amazon territory.
We invited high-level experts to join an Advisory Board that, over time, has intensified its efforts to reflect in depth on local dynamics, suggest priorities and challenge us regarding the effectiveness of the proposed actions. Based on the initial list of objectives, we prioritized four, moving forward with the most important needs of the region and implementing initiatives in the short term.
From the outset, we saw the potential for the formation of a thriving economic sector in the bioeconomy field. We understand that this will be inevitable as long as structural needs are met, such as research and development, investment, access to international markets and improvements in supply chains. We decided to delve deeper, supporting a project that will show the reasons for the still low participation of Amazonian products in the global market and the ways to increase it. In its recommendations, the work will provide elements for overcoming the main bottlenecks for the development of production chains in the region with high potential for international insertion. The three private banks have an important role to play in embracing this agenda.
In the area of supporting the development of sustainable crops, such as cocoa, açaí, pepper and aquaculture, we have taken a closer look to identify activities that generate income for local communities and promote forest conservation. We set an initial joint goal, which has already been exceeded, of providing R$100 million in credit to cooperatives and agribusinesses that work in the cultivation, management, extraction, processing and marketing of Amazonian products, always within best practices. Each institution follows its own commercial conditions and, in addition, offers technical assistance services, business management support and financial guidance to clients.
We are also focusing on livestock farming. We are committed to supporting the transformation of the sector towards zero illegal deforestation, through the adoption of differentiated practices as a prerequisite for granting credit. Recommendations to companies in the sector include the traceability of farms and slaughterhouses with a view to environmental regularization and the use of technological platforms to verify direct and indirect suppliers, meeting minimum information and security requirements by 2025. Within the same timeframe, we expect action plans to be implemented that lead to the elimination of illegal deforestation throughout the chain. All of this will be monitored by objective and previously aligned performance indicators.
Another major challenge for granting credit in the region is land regularization. Without recognition of land ownership, producers do not have access to financing, given the risks involved and the limitations of the regulatory standards. In this regard, we received support from renowned law firms that accepted our invitation to work on the preparation of a document whose objective was to map the legislation in force in the nine states of the Legal Amazon and which could serve as a basis for supporting discussions on the topic by the competent entities.
This first year of operation has led us to some lessons: i) the Amazon is truly a unique, incomparable territory and, due to this peculiarity, demands a specific approach to its development; ii) there are no panaceas or miracle solutions capable of simultaneously and in the short term contemplating such diverse interests, whether from a biological, social, economic or geopolitical point of view; iii) given the scale of the challenge, success is strongly linked to cooperation with different business, government, academic and third sector initiatives, many of which have been underway in the region for a long time.
Today, Amazon Day, we reaffirm our commitment to the ten measures we have taken, reinforcing our belief that the standing forest holds the most valuable assets of our country and that the future of the Amazon will be decisive for our destiny as a nation.
By Octavio de Lazari, Milton Maluhy Filho and Sergio Rial
Presidents of Bradesco, Itaú Unibanco and Santander, respectively.
