Gmail - Reportagem Mongabay/The Guardian - investimento na Minerva 1 of 4 https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ik=eb13c9c966&view=pt&search=all... Naira Hofmeister Reportagem Mongabay/The Guardian - investimento na Minerva Patricia Carvalho Para: Naira Hofmeister 16 de junho de 2020 17:44 Oi Naira, Como falamos há pouco, te encaminho -no corpo deste email- a resposta da IFC para o questionamento que nos enviou ontem. Estou à disposição se houver alguma dúvida, inclusive eventual questão relacionada a termos em português. Agradeço se puder confirmar o recebimento desta mensagem. Abs, Patricia ---------------------- Dear Naira, We hereby provide answer to your questions regarding IFC's financing and equity investment in Minerva Foods. We appreciate having the opportunity to share our views and contribute to the story you are writing. Forests, biodiversity and ecosystem services are critical for countries to respond to climate change and support rural economic growth. The World Bank Group works with a wide range of partners locally and globally, , including with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), to promote sustainable forest management investments and biodiversity conservation by mainstreaming it in sectors like agriculture, transport and energy. Despite the achievements of the last 15 years, the integrity of the Amazon continues to be threatened by deforestation and degradation, with negative impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services, including serious implications for the regional and global climate. For this reason, the World Bank Group continues to provide active support to this agenda both through IBRD and IFC. The Amazon Sustainable Landscapes program builds on over a decade of work in the Brazilian Amazon to strengthen biodiversity conservation, reduce deforestation, and improve community livelihoods. IFC strives to balance our role as a financier of private sector projects with the World Bank Group’s development mandate and climate change related strategies and commitments. In every investment made by IFC, clients need to 08/07/2020 21:02 Gmail - Reportagem Mongabay/The Guardian - investimento na Minerva 2 of 4 https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ik=eb13c9c966&view=pt&search=all... make a strong commitment to adhere to IFC’s Performance Standards (PS). IFC’s first experience in the Brazilian beef industry dates back to early 2000’s. At that time, however, the market context was challenging and had a substantial gap between local law and industry practices and IFC’s PS. Industrywide stakeholders’ dialogue had just started and had not yet produced a clear set of voluntary rules for industry leaders to follow. By deciding to pull out of its investment in that sector at that time, IFC sent a strong message to the market about its own commitment to its PS and the expected commitment from each of its clients. Since then, as the sector evolved, IFC selected only one company to engage with, and spent several years aligning views on what could be done to improve the sector’s environmental and social (E&S) standards before finally investing in Minerva in 2013. Minerva, on its side, realized that its increased exposure to international markets and recognition that encroachment on sensitive areas would eventually bear reputational and other business risks and sought out IFC’s assistance in designing and implementing environmentally and socially sustainable practices and disseminating such practices along their supply chain. For Minerva, this represented a very significant strategic decision, which the company felt was important to underscore with an equity stake in the company. Since then, the partnership between IFC and Minerva has resulted in a significant progress in the company’s E&S management and practices, particularly in Brazil. As you are probably aware, as per our agreement with Minerva, the company has an obligation to adhere to IFC’s Performance Standards, which we monitor regularly. IFC’s investment in Minerva was categorized as "Category A" in accordance with IFC's Policy on Environmental and Social sustainability. Category A projects are subject to a field visit at a minimum of once a year, although in practice IFC stays in close, regular contact with any client operating in high risk sectors in addition to the formal annual monitoring process. The IFC website makes available a Summary of Investment Information (SII) and an Environmental and Social Review Summary (ESRS), including the Environmental & Social Action Plan to which Minerva agreed to comply as part of the terms of the agreement signed with IFC. Updates to these documents are disclosed according to IFC's Access to Information Policy (full text of such policy is available on IFC's website ). We encourage you to access the documents in IFC’s website. IFC has been working closely with Minerva since 2013 to monitor the company’s efforts to manage the sustainability of its supply chain across South America. These efforts include activities in regions where the company is a formal party of sector agreements such as those under the Termo de Ajustamento de Conduta (TAC) of Pará and the Public Commitment for the Beef Sector (“Compromisso Público para a Pecuária”, in Portuguese), and also in other sensitive regions where there are no sector-based agreements. We would like to highlight below some of the steps Minerva has taken, with help from IFC, in meeting its environmental and social obligations regarding the traceability in its supply chain, as well as a summary of selected efforts made by other organizations in this regard. Even though Minerva’s compliance with direct suppliers has been a very important step, the engagement of multiple stakeholders, including State, Federal Government and NGOs, is crucial to bring the traceability and transparency we all strive for. Direct Suppliers – All of Minerva’s Direct Purchases come from Zero-Deforestation Areas - As of today, 100% of Minerva’s direct purchases come from zero-deforestation areas in the Amazon biome. This outcome is the result of years of work in the sector undertaken by several entities including the Government of Brazil, Brazilian meatpackers (including Minerva), food retailers, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), the WBG, and others. - This process started in 2009 with the Greenpeace Public Livestock Commitment (also known as the Beef Moratorium, of which Minerva is a signatory) followed by the Cadastro Ambiental Rural (CAR) implementation, and finally by Minerva’s obligation to adhere to IFC’s PS. - The CAR allows Minerva (and other entities that utilize it) to locate with precision the area covered by each ranch 08/07/2020 21:02 Gmail - Reportagem Mongabay/The Guardian - investimento na Minerva 3 of 4 https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ik=eb13c9c966&view=pt&search=all... (the polygon) and the ranch’s environmental licensing process. This enables Minerva to exclude ranches that do not meet the criteria, including ranches that have deforested and/or that are in embargoed, indigenous or protected areas. Today, Minerva’s database covers 7,000 ranches of which 2,000 are blocked using the mentioned criteria (i.e., Minerva will not buy from these ranches). - As a result, IFC believes that Minerva complies with its commitments (as they relate to direct suppliers) under the Beef Moratorium and is successfully applying a strict purchase policy to its primary suppliers in accordance with IFC’s Performance Standard 6. Indirect Suppliers – Currently Not Being Monitored in Brazil As anyone in the industry can attest, monitoring indirect suppliers at scale is very challenging. We believe that further progress against deforestation in Brazil depends on expanded government regulation and, importantly, law enforcement at federal and state levels. IFC works with Minerva directly by ensuring that Minerva remains compliant with local environmental regulations and IFC’s PS. However, no larger scale progress can be made without a joint effort. IFC welcomes partners, including those in local and federal government and NGOs, in seeking to make further progress against deforestation in Brazil. - The Brazil’s Public Prosecutor Office (PPO) is currently actively monitoring all ranchers (which include indirect suppliers to meatpackers) and their compliance with the CAR. In the state of Pará, for instance, there is a resolution to link the Guia de Trânsito Animal (GTA, the cattle proof of purchase) with the CAR, which would increase the assurance of the supply chain traceability. Implementation, however, is unfortunately slow and results are still limited in scope. Since 2015, Minerva has been working closely with a joint working group on suppliers -an effort led by NGO Amigos da Terra (funded by NORAD and the Moore Foundation) and including other NGOs such as the National Wildlife Federation, the World Wildlife Fund and the Nature Conservancy- to reach a voluntary common understanding and planning for a zero-deforestation supply chain. This initiative will take time but is a necessary step. Benchmarking In comparison to other meatpackers in Brazil, Minerva has been a high performer as evidenced by observations in the independent Pará PPO audit reports, available on their official website. In addition, recent articles from recognized NGOs (Earthsight and O Eco), recognize Minerva’s good performance when compared to other industry players. Scope of Influence The three largest meatpackers in Brazil (which include Minerva) represent only 30-35% of all direct cattle purchases in the country, and only these three entities are signatories to the Beef Moratorium. By contrast, the remaining players in the industry are not subject to any of the zero-deforestation criteria, which points to the challenges in the operating environment and the importance of reaching out to the other 70% of the market (rough estimates indicate that Minerva represents around 3.5% of the market, underscoring its extremely limited influence in the sector as a whole). In this context, the best practices that Minerva is putting into practice on its direct supply chain demonstrate to other players and stakeholders what can be done. 08/07/2020 21:02 Gmail - Reportagem Mongabay/The Guardian - investimento na Minerva 4 of 4 https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ik=eb13c9c966&view=pt&search=all... IFC continues to look for opportunities to support initiatives to help deepen the traceability of indirect suppliers and promote transparency and accountability in the supply chain. IFC has been very selective in its financing of the beef sector in Brazil, precisely because the sector is plagued with informal and non-transparent supply chains. Therefore, we chose to work with Minerva, which we believe has always been a leader for the sector on E&S management. The sector has a long way to go to achieve zero deforestation. It will take a concerted effort of regulators, civil society and leading industry players to make this transformation possible. As we continuously work with Minerva to improve their practices, including the traceability of their supply chain, we can only wish to see others follow suit so that overtime complete traceability systems become the norm. [Texto das mensagens anteriores oculto] 08/07/2020 21:02