Suellen Nunes*
Pará has the second largest cattle herd in Brazil, with 25.6 million head in 2024, equivalent to 10.7% of the national total, according to IBGE. In this scenario, the “Pará Sustainable Livestock Program” has emerged as an initiative that brings together the efforts of the public and private sectors to promote more efficient and transparent production.
On March 30 and 31, IPAM (Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia) held a seminar entitled “Two years of the Sustainable Livestock Program in Pará: advances and challenges for family farming”. The meeting brought together different actors in the chain to disseminate lessons learned and contribute to the construction of recommendations aimed at strengthening the state program for the sector.
“Our main objective is to reflect on the advances and challenges linked to the three main axes linked to the program: traceability; socio-environmental integrity; and strengthening and adding value, especially in family farming. Over the course of these two years, we have held various events and studies which will be evaluated in order to indicate ways in which the state government and other supporters, both public authorities and civil society, can move forward in this development program which combines production and conservation,” explains Edivan Carvalho, researcher and coordinator of IPAM in Pará.
Over the last two decades, livestock farming has grown steadily in Pará, with an expansion of 148% between 2000 and 2024. Part of this production is linked to family farming, which accounts for around 31.4% of Pará’s cattle herd. The state’s family farmers lead milk production in the state, with establishments mostly up to 200 hectares in size, responsible for approximately 75% of the cows milked.
For Ângela de Jesus, executive director of IDESA (Institute for the Economic and Social Development of the Amazon), the program helps to multiply information about livestock farming and sustainability. “It’s fundamental that we can reach our family farming bases so that they can go hand in hand, starting with qualification and traceability. This moment converges with all the leaders who are engaged in these actions of sustainable practices in our livestock farming.”
The project completed two years of implementation at the end of 2025. During this period, agreements were reached and strategies improved to address the main challenges and opportunities for consolidating sustainable livestock farming in the state.
“Today is a time to define the next steps in the sustainable livestock project in Pará, and here we are going to discuss with family farming what we are going to do over the next two years. We’ve already had many achievements that will promote livestock farming in our state,” says Bárbara Lopes, a veterinarian at ADEPARÁ (Pará State Agricultural Defense Agency).
Planning the next steps until 2027
For the next two years, the initiative intends to make progress in consolidating the strategies developed, increasing producer participation and strengthening the mechanisms for monitoring, traceability and valuing sustainable production.
“Before, everything was very much geared towards rural producers, and family farmers were left on the sidelines, without identifying themselves in this place. With monitoring, we started to understand this reality better and offer support. Today, the program is important because it helps farmers to recognize themselves as producers, to understand their activity and to access this space, even in the face of the difficulties and bureaucracy of environmental legislation,” says Rafaela Bitencourt, a family farmer in the municipality of Curuçá.
During the seminar, the public aimed to define action strategies, identify bottlenecks and propose solutions for the initiatives planned until 2027. In all, 93 participants were involved in the process, actively contributing to validating or contesting each proposal presented.
Each group was responsible for debating a specific axis of the program, deepening discussions on the main challenges faced in their respective areas. Based on this collective exercise, solutions were drawn up in line with the reality of the territories. By voting, the participants expressed their level of agreement with the proposals made, strengthening a participatory, transparent process geared towards building more effective strategies that adhere to local demands.
The activity was organized by IPAM, SEAF (State Secretariat for Family Farming), SEMAS (State Secretariat for the Environment and Sustainability), ADEPARÁ (Pará State Agricultural Defense Agency), FETAGRI (Federation of Rural Workers, Farmers and Family Farmers of the State of Pará), and SEAF (State Secretariat for Family Farming); in partnership with FETRAF-PARÁ (Federation of Workers in Family Farming), and support from ICS (Institute for Climate and Society), TNC (The Nature Conservancy) and NICFI (Norwegian International Climate and Forest Initiative).
IPAM* communications analyst.
