GTPS was created in 2007 by the link of different leaders of the agribusiness sector, representatives of the industry, producers and civil organizations, that had decided to meet and settle a sole, collective and transparent way to search for good practices standards to be adopted by the Brazilian productive chain of livestock. GTPS’ mission is to foster the sustainable development of sustainable livestock through chain linkage, continuous improvement and the dissemination of information.

The strong brand of the Group is the respect to democracy, including all the involved categories in the beef cattle chain in an unbiased way. Since its creation, environmentalists and producers are given the same weight and importance within GTPS. Due to this legitimacy GTPS has been the main forum on the subject, being the sustainable livestock voice at Conferences on Climate and also a linking reference around the globe.

At a polarized time, where agricultural producers’ associations are questioning its permanence in multi stakeholder forums for not agreeing with the predominant targeting of the debate for “deforestation zero”, at GTPS the opposite is happening. The number of members is increasing and the ranchers are assuming their protagonism within the group and in the entire beef chain, choosing the implementation of the Forest Code as the major priority of the country and fostering a real revolution when protecting its forests, increasing the productivity of its farms and improving the carbon balance on its productive systems.

Thus, there are no reasons or benefits so that our members empty our forums within GTPS and carry such critical and important debates related to the Brazilian livestock, such as, Deforestation, Traceability and Indirect Suppliers, to forums that do not have the same standing of categories such as “ranchers” and “input” and “services”, deviating from the commitments and directions settled at GTPS’ Code of Conduct.

Furthermore, several times these two categories are represented by its owners, who need to work for their businesses and do not possess the same time availability and resources to participate in many groups and debates, from which some are repetitive, and, therefore, it is nonsense participating in these parallel forums. Moreover, this groups’ diffusion weakens the debate and its content, and even GTPS, as an institution.

The exclusive strategy of “Zero Deforestation”, the democratic debate deviation on a neutral ground and the protection of interests that sometimes seem not to be alined with the national interests, are disturbing the positive debates, weakening our mission to implement the Forest Code and hindering the recognition and promotion of the Brazilian biodiversity.
As an alternative to the exclusiveness of “zero deforestation” I would like to engage the members in a new strategy: “zero illegal deforestation and immediate implementation of the forest code”, and focus in an intelligent and efficient campaign so that emitting countries pay for the environmental services rendered by the biodiversity of our biomas.

The civil society had and still has a relevant role indicating problems, but the solution and implementation of the necessary traceability needs to be accomplished in an alliance with the ranchers (main affected parties) and by the companies that are specialists in the subject.

We rely on the union and commitment of all involved in the search for more balance and democratic solutions that place greater value toward the unique characteristics of the tropical livestock production in Brazil, with biodiversity conservation guaranteed by law (today more than 60% of the territory is aimed at preservation) and with over 80% of it grass-finished cattle herds, which guarantees lower emissions of greenhouse effect gases in relation to the type of production from developed countries.

For these reasons, we invite all GTPS members that are wasting efforts and focus in the parallel forums (GTFI and Coalisão Brasil/Força Tarefa de Rastreabilidade) to participate on the debate and solution for “traceability” and the “indirect” within GTPS itself, strengthening the debate and the participation of all the links, as always and as it has been since our foundation.
In the next meeting of the Board of Directors, we will talk over this action so that it is carried out in a respectful and alined way with the other forums.

The idea is to construct a traceability and indirect monitoring model based in 4 requirements:

– respect to the Forest Code, regulatory mark for the conservation and the use of the soil widely debated by the Brazilians and approved in the National Congress;

– respect to the developed mechanisms to guarantee the health of the Brazilian cattle herd;

– no support to strategies to weaken and/or criminalize the image of companies linked to the agro, which promote the polarization and association of Brazil’s image with the destruction of the Amazon;

– respect to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

We count on everyone to fight for a positive Brazilian agenda that protects the interests and unique characteristics of our country.

We appreciate your understanding,