faq

A.: No, the monitoring methodology does not evaluate the entire area of the rural property, only the planting of soybean in an area with deforestation in the selected municipalities, based on the criteria above. As such, deforestation polygons without soybean crops that may be located on soybean properties will not be identified nor will the property. However, once a soybean polygon that does not comply with the Moratorium has been identified, the entire property is blocked by the companies that have signed the pact.

A.: A database of deforestation in the Amazon biome, made available by the Prodes project/Inpe, is used as well as other databases from the following institutions: Agrosatélite, National Indigenous Foundation (FUNAI), Environmental Ministry (MMA), Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), Agriculture, Livestock and Supply Ministry (MAPA), state departments of Agriculture of Mato Grosso and Pará states and INCRA, the institute to regulate land reform and register rural properties.

A.: Based on the results acquired through the spatial analysis, the resulting polygons are compared to the existing property data in the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) and other public databases of the states. The resulting products are the lists of producers and farms that do not comply with the Soy Moratorium.
The lists are readily available to the companies that have signed the Soy Moratorium so they can input the information into their corporate purchasing systems and subsidize the process of blocking purchases from irregular sources in order to meet the deforestation criteria of the Moratorium.
The companies that have purchased soybeans from the biome must every year undergo third-party audits to verify their past purchases.

A.: The Moratorium was initially signed by the Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Producers (Abiove), the National Association of Grain Exporters (Anec) and NGOs, represented by Greenpeace.
The Soy Work Group (GTS) was then established, a space for multi-stakeholder dialogue, in which oversight mechanisms and Moratorium assessments can be negotiated, defined and reviewed. The Brazilian Environmental Ministry adhered to the pact in 2008 and in 2012 Banco do Brasil became a signatory as well. In May 2016, the Moratorium was renewed for an indefinite period of time.

A.: The analysis and spatial monitoring work of the municipalities is performed by satellite-monitoring company, Agrosatélite, which uses a combination of sensor images with different temporal and spatial resolutions obtained throughout the crop cycle that are used to identify and map soybean areas with high hit rates. It should be noted that polygons deforested after 2008 and identified as soybean related are audited by the National Space Research Institute (Inpe) for veracity and accuracy. Based on these polygons, a list of properties that do not comply with the terms of the agreement is generated and used by the companies to block these farms in the suppliers’ register. From the lists, all the purchases of the companies are audited annually by an external auditor that confirm if the companies are complying or not with the terms of the Moratorium.