Monitoring The Beef TAC

In 2009, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office of the state of Pará (MPF-PA) filed lawsuits against meatpackers who were found to have purchased cattle from areas with illegal deforestation, and this led three meatpackers to sign agreements with the MPF-PA called Terms of Adjustment of Conduct(TACs), that detailed their obligations to avoid sourcing from ranches that don’t conform with social and environmental laws. TAC agreements were subsequently implemented in additional Amazon states, with dozens of meatpackers, and are now one of the main instruments for controlling deforestation in the cattle chain in Brazil.

To clarify details about how meatpackers should source products to be in compliance with TAC agreements, a multi-stakeholder group was tasked with developing a Protocol for complying with TACs. The state of Pará was a pioneer in establishing and implementing TACs and is today the state with the largest number of signatories and most robust auditing system.The first round of audits occurred in 2017, and were limited in scope and states.While each subsequent round of audits has incrementally improved, 2023 represented a milestone for this verification mechanism. Through what is referred to as “the 1st unified cycle of audits of the Carne Legal (Legal Beef) Program” auditing has expanded to the states of Acre, Amazonas, Mato Grosso and Rondônia, representing the states which comprise the vast majority of Amazon slaughter volume.