Today in Brasilia, a public consultation is being held on the socioenvironmental assessment of the Marabá Meat-packing Project in the state of Pará and on its associated ranching production chain, part of the "Bertin Sustainable Ranching Project".  The project is to financed by the IFC with technical support from the World Bank.  According to the Bertin Group, the project could make Pará the largest national producer of products from the beef cattle chain.  According to information provided, the areas to be utilized to build the plant and its pastures have already been deforested and so will not cause new deforestations.

The socioenvironmental studies presented by Consultora Tetraplan fail to inform what measures will be used to recover legal reserve areas, nor inform how outstanding land title issues are to be resolved.  There is also still no information regarding the concrete social benefits to be provided to the local population with the implementation of the Bertin meat packing plant.  Roberto Smeraldi, director of Friends of the Earth - Brazilian Amazonia, highlighted the need for the Bertin Project to comply with World Bank policies on ranching (Livestock Strategy, published in 2001) and pointed out the lack of an analysis containing the greenhouse gas (CO2) balance of the project.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which addresses agriculture and hunger issues, has produced a report stressing potential harm caused to the environment: "the livestock sector is responsible for 9% of CO2 caused by human activities, and produces a much higher percentage of the more harmful greenhouse gases.  It produces 65% or human-caused nitrogen dioxide, which has 296 times the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of CO2.  Most of this gas is from cattle manure".  FAO also considers that livestock is not only a hazard to the environment, but is also one of the major causes of soil and water resource degradation.

The deadline scheduled by the IFC for the public consultation of the project is 60 days.  During this period, civil society can send contributions, suggestions and raise questions, which may lead to sustainability of the project.

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