VISEC: Gran Chaco Monitoring Platform
Development of VISEC, a unified monitoring platform for the soy supply chain in Argentina, combining public and private systems, aiming to curb deforestation in priority conservation areas in the Gran Chaco
PATHWAYS
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START
May 2022
DURATION
36 months
BIOME
Gran Chaco
LOCATION
Argentina
STATUS
Ongoing
Argentina's largest ecoregion, the Gran Chaco, occupies 25% of the country's territory in 11 different provinces. The biome is home to 60% of the country's native vegetation and the habitat for a great variety of animal and plant species, in a territory occupied by countless native peoples of enormous diversity and cultural importance. The expansion of the agricultural frontier, especially through the expansion of soy plantations, has caused environmental, social, and economic losses to the region. Today, the Gran Chaco is a global deforestation hotspot, and one of the poorest and most environmentally sensitive areas in Latin America.
The proposal of the Argentine Edible Oil Association (CIARA), in partnership with the Peterson-Control Union (PCU) and the Rosario Stock Exchange, is to establish an innovative tracking and monitoring platform to assess the environmental, social, and economic impacts of soy production and other commodities in priority areas of Argentina, starting with the Gran Chaco. The VISEC platform will bring together, in a single system, monitoring and verification data for all the soy traded in Argentina, bringing together relevant sustainability parameters and requirements for its sale. The multi-sectorial, participatory initiative involves contributions and engagement by a variety of players, from farmers to surrounding communities, and aims to generate data in a transparent, reliable, and publicly accessible manner.
The goal is to build an innovative tool to assist decision making, to help improve the population's conditions, and to produce and sell essential goods in an environmentally sustainable way. The platform will provide solutions for farmers to shift their practices to a sustainable model, with technical assistance to introduce new products or businesses that contribute to environmental conservation or restoration. Public and private sectors, as well as financial institutions, will benefit from a platform that brings transparency and traceability to the agricultural production chain.
