The virtual platform ABC – Low Carbon Agriculture – which monitors emissions of greenhouse gases -, and the Webambiente platform, with technological solutions and services to enforce the Brazilian Forest Code, were launched on Wednesday (28), in Brasília (DF) by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MPLS). The two tools were developed by the pulp in partnership with the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) and the Ministry of the Environment.
In his speech, Minister Blairo Maggi said that “Brazil is far ahead of other countries in the issue of environmental preservation. These two tools prove what is happening on farms. “Maggi explained that it will now be possible to respond unequivocally to questions about Brazil’s actions in the development of sustainable agriculture.
“From now on we are going to monitor greenhouse gas emissions,” said the minister, “because when we said what we were doing, we were asked: and how do you demonstrate this? How do you guarantee that this is what is happening? , in this interaction between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of the Environment, plus Embrapa, which is linked to the MAPA, we will be able to demonstrate and certify that our data is here, that is what we monitor, that we know exactly what what is happening and where it is happening. “
The ABC Platform is yet another digital tool to be used by the Federal Government in the implementation of the National Policy on Climate Change (PNMC) and the Sectorial Plan for the Consolidation of a Low Carbon Emission Economy in Agriculture (Plano ABC), launched in 2010 The WebAmbiente Platform, via the internet, aggregates information on Brazilian biomes classified in modules of area cadastre, interactive diagnosis, indicated native species and their economic potential, available techniques and models (nurseries, seedlings, courses), cost analysis and digital library .
The two platforms are considered to be fundamental to the viability of the ABC Plan and the New Forest Code, as well as to fulfill the commitments made at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP-15), held in December 2009 in Copenhagen, and subsequently at the 21st Conference (COP-21) in December 2015 in Paris.
The new platform and the ABC Plan
The president of Embrapa, Mauricio Lopes, explained that there is no on-site research in the rural properties of a gigantic country like Brazil, since there are scientific methods by sampling that can model and calculate the impacts of the ABC Plan.
“The ABC platform will identify regions in Brazil that are representative of the different production conditions,” Lopes said. “It will raise data and model all of Brazil and so, by 2020, we will be fully capable of showing in any international environment the impacts of the so-called Low Carbon Agriculture (ABC) plan.
The platform was already foreseen in the original formulation of the ABC plan, with the structuring of a network of laboratories started in 2013 and completed in 2016. “We are now launching governance,” explained the president of Embrapa, “because this is a platform that involves many institutions working in an integrated way and, from now until 2020, we will need to collect data and information that demonstrate the impact of the ABC plan. Throughout these years, Brazil has applied resources, encouraged our producers to incorporate technologies such as crop-livestock integration, crop-livestock-forest and biological nitrogen fixation. Now we have to demonstrate that these applied technologies have produced gains in reducing carbon emissions and made our agriculture more sustainable. “
Webambiente and rural properties
The Webambiente platform is already accessible on the websites of the Ministry of the Environment and Embrapa. According to Juliana Ferreira Simões, Secretary of Extractivism and Sustainable Rural Development of the Ministry of the Environment, Webambiente is very easy to use and serves to support the producer in the recovery and recovery of degraded sites of legal reserve and Permanent Protection Area (APP) .
“The platform,” said Simões, “tells how the farmer can work in the area to rebuild, suggests the best technologies and also indicates the best and most appropriate species for the recovery of the legal reserve and the APP.”