On October 6, 2025, the Brazil Program at the Inter-American Dialogue hosted a roundtable on deforestation and conversion-free agriculture, focused on how Brazil can reconcile global food security with the protection of sensitive biomes such as the Amazon, the Cerrado, and the Pantanal.
The discussion featured Laurimar Gonçalves Vendrusculo, head at the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) Agrossilvipastoril, Julio Esquerdo, deputy head of research and development at Embrapa Digital Agriculture, Edegar Oliveira, director for conservation and restoration of ecosystems at WWF-Brasil, Jane Lino, deputy director at Proforest, and Beth Hart, chief sustainability officer at McDonald’s Corporation. The event was moderated by Bruna Santos, director of the Brazil Program.
Speakers examined current deforestation and land-conversion trends and showcased tools, protocols, and governance mechanisms—such as Embrapa’s monitoring datasets and the Cerrado Protocol—to strengthen transparency and accountability across supply chains. They highlighted the role of corporate commitments and collaboration with producers and local communities in accelerating measurable progress.
The discussion underscored that while Brazil already has advanced monitoring systems and robust data, greater political will, financial incentives, and coordinated governance are still needed to scale real progress. Traceability and transparency tools are technically feasible but remain constrained by fragmented implementation and misaligned incentives.
The insights from the roundtable will inform a forthcoming co-authored policy paper by Bruna Santos and Alexandre Varella (Embrapa), outlining actionable pathways to advance deforestation- and conversion-free agriculture in Brazil.
This roundtable is part of a broader initiative led by the Brazil Program in partnership with Embrapa, Marfrig, Arcos Dorados, and WWF-Brasil, dedicated to promoting sustainable agriculture in Latin America and contributing to the agenda of COP30. The initiative includes a series of high-level dialogues whose outcomes will shape policy papers to be launched at Casa Diálogo, the Brazil Program’s venue in Belém, on November 10, 2025, during COP30.
WATCH THE EVENT HERE:
