Who we are
The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) estimates that there is more than 200 million head of cattle in Brazil. That's almost one cattle per inhabitant.
With impressive and constantly growing numbers, Brazil is the largest exporter and the second-largest producer of beef in the world. However, with around 40% of cattle production concentrated in the Amazon region, in the states of Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima, Tocantins and Maranhão, cattle ranching - and the deforestation associated with the activity - are at the centre of the debate on the consequences of the climate emergency for Brazil.
Created in 2019 on the initiative of Imaflora, in partnership with the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, Beef on Track recognizes the complexity of the sector, aims to accelerate the implementation of the commitments made by the beef chain in the Amazon and seeks to encourage a chain free of socio-environmental irregularities.
The path from the cattle raised in millions of Brazilian farms to the arrival of meat on the consumer's table involves an extensive production chain. In this path, the commitments of the beef chain are central.
With its initiatives, Beef on Track seeks to put cattle producers, slaughterhouses, supermarkets, investors, public actors and civil society organizations on the same page. The hub's objective is to promote good practices through monitoring, auditing and reporting processes and tools, increasing transparency in search of a beef chain free of deforestation, slave labour or invasion of public lands.
The programme also collaborates with the production and sharing of knowledge and technical expertise, which may stimulate the creation of policies and procedures for responsible cattle farming. Follow and participate in Beef on Track.
ABOUT
IMAFLORA
The Institute for Forest and Agriculture Management and Certification (Imaflora) is a non-profit civil association created in 1995 under the premise that the best way to preserve tropical forests is to give them an economic purpose, combined with good management practices and the responsible management of natural resources. Imaflora seeks to influence the production chains for forest and agricultural products, to collaborate in the creation and implementation of public interest policies and, ultimately, to make a difference in the regions where it operates, creating models for land use and sustainable development that can be reproduced in different municipalities, regions and biomes of the country.
Team
Marina Piatto
Piatto is the executive director of the Institute of Forest and Agricultural Management and Certification (Imaflora). She has been part of the organisation since 2005, when she started as climate and agricultural chains manager. Piatto is an agronomist from the University of São Paulo (USP) and holds a master’s degree in Tropical Agriculture from the University of Bonn, Germany. Marina is the senior strategist for responsible agricultural value chains.
Eduardo Trevisan
Gonçalves is the manager of the Agricultural Chains area. He is an agronomist with an MBA in agribusiness. He has been working at Imaflora since 2002 on agricultural and territorial projects. Gonçalves’ work involves initiatives connected to best agricultural practices, environmental conservation and human rights. He is also involved in projects related to low carbon agriculture, sustainable supply chains and productive restoration.
Lisandro Inakake
Inakake is an agronomist and has worked at Imaflora since 2009 with agricultural certification, land use monitoring, traceability and rural development. As Project Coordinator, his aim is to increase the transparency and credibility of supply chains through the implementation of good agricultural practices, environmental conservation and social safeguards.
Isabel Garcia
Drigo earned a degree in Social Communication and a PhD in Environmental Science from the University of São Paulo (USP). She has been working at Imaflora since 2017 with the development of verification and certification systems for the forestry and agricultural sectors (soy and beef). She is also involved in studies on natural capital and conditions to enable sustainable landscapes in the Amazon and Cerrado regions. Drigo is a social auditor and a member of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) working on gender and indigenous peoples' issues.
Marina Guyot
Guyot works as Coordinator of Agricultural Chain Projects at Imaflora, where she heads agendas related to the elimination of deforestation and human rights violations in the cattle-ranching and grain chains. She has been working on the socio-environmental agenda for 16 years and has extensive experience in mediating issues with civil society and the private and public sector. Guyot is an Agronomist from the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture of the University of São Paulo (ESALQ/USP) and holds a master’s degree in Agroecology and Rural Development from the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) linked to the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation affiliated with the Brazilian Agriculture Ministry (Embrapa) and has a PhD in Science from ESALQ/USP.
Louise Nakagawa
Nakagawa is a senior researcher in governance, sustainability and rural development. She holds a degree in Biology with a PhD in Energy from the Federal University of ABC; she completed a PhD internship in Public Administration and Policy at Wageningen University in the Netherlands (2012) and holds a Postdoc Fellowship from the University of Liverpool in England (2015). She is currently a researcher and consultant for Imaflora in Agricultural Chains and for the Brazilian Analysis and Planning Centre (Cebrap).
Tiago Nogueira
Reis has been a project coordinator at Imaflora since 2022, leading the Trase (intelligence for sustainable trade) initiative in Brazil and other South American countries. He is a researcher having earned his international relations degree from the Pontifical University (PUC) in Rio specialising in public policy, has an MSc in environmental science and policy from University College Dublin, and a PhD in land use science from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. He has been working on issues of socio-environmental policy and agribusiness supply chains since 2014.
Rodrigo Cascalles
Cascalles worked as project coordinator at Imaflora from 2007 to 2014 in national and international initiatives. From 2015 to 2018, he worked in the area of sustainability for the animal origin food industry. Between 2018 and 2021, he founded two 2 startups in the food and beverage area. He returned to Imaflora in 2021, working on the construction of multistakeholder agreements encompassing ESG. He is an agronomist and a martial arts instructor.
Daniela Marques
Marques is a journalist specialised in Digital Communication projects. She has also worked as media relations, in the coordination of communication for projects in different sectors and in the management of relationship programmes with digital influencers. She was the editor of a gateway for the Third Sector and has worked on other initiatives of civil society organisations.
Realization
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