Leaving PCI

When people ask me what the Mato Grosso Produce, Conserve and Include Strategy is, and what I do, I take a deep breath and say that it is a jurisdictional sustainability initiative and ask if the person has the time for me to explain what the hell does that means.

Recently a friend helped me find a metaphor to explain it better. Imagine the neighborhood where you live. There may be potholes in the streets. Burnt out light bulbs on the poles. Some dirty plot. Clogged drains. Some violence problem. Lack of a bakery. A neglected square. You gather your neighbors, representatives of the city hall, the stores in the neighborhood. You convince everyone to come to an agreement on what should be done, what are the priorities, and you also ask: who can do what? Some things will need investments. Perhaps a store could adopt a square, a councilor allocate an amendment, a joint effort to clean sewers.

Now imagine this logic applied to an entire rural territory. There are settlements in need of regularization, producers in need of technical assistance, conflicts, illegality, degraded areas. In this territory there is a government, there are companies that operate there, producers, indigenous peoples, associations, organizations. What is the vision of the future that these people who live there have for this territory? Perhaps they will disagree on many things, but there will be things that everyone agrees on. Everyone agrees to end lawlessness. In supporting land and environmental regularization. In giving technical assistance to those who need it. In valuing those who provide environmental services. What are the actions that need to happen? What are the priorities? How much does it cost? And who can do what? It seems relatively simple.

This has been my job since I came to Mato Grosso, a little over 6 years ago, invited to be the director of the PCI Strategy, in the largest producing state in Brazil. And I had no idea that this would be the most difficult and complex task of my life until then. At the time, there was no “recipe” on how to put something like this on its feet. Discussions on sustainability in agricultural production have always focused on production chains. Sustainable soy. Sustainable livestock. Achieving sustainability, the balance between production, conservation and socioeconomic development in a territory, a landscape or a jurisdiction is still something new today.

What have I achieved? A lot and still very little.

I can say that I participated in changes that I did not believe were possible. I saw a government come out of a situation of fiscal crisis, with no money to pay civil servants salaries for an administration that not only recovered the maximum score in its fiscal situation, but is also carrying out the largest investment program in the history of the state. I saw a governor put the fight against illegal deforestation at the top of his political agenda, and committed to achieving emissions neutrality.

I like to think that I had a hand in the construction of some of the important policies for the sustainable development of this State. Policies such as deforestation control, CAR, family farming and low carbon agriculture. And I finally saw deforestation fall, while production continued to increase. I helped put Mato Grosso's REDD+ system up and running, and for the first time, the state raised funds to reduce deforestation through the REM Program. It was also at REM that I witnessed and took part in the largest consultation process with indigenous peoples ever carried out in the Amazon, strengthening indigenous organizations in the state.

I saw companies stepping out of the discourse to put into practice actions that help the state to advance in its goals. I saw producers helping to fund the tools to accelerate the implementation of the rural environmental registry. We also saw, for the first time, producers getting paid for preserving areas beyond what is required by law. I saw municipalities and local organizations in turn also committing themselves to advancing sustainability in their territories. I saw projects coming to the forefront, for those most in need, supporting settlers, small producers to produce better, to have access to the market, credit, assistance, documents, everything that was denied to them in years of marginalization.

I believe that I have helped to create a minimum space of trust, between actors who historically have always had very little trust in each other. In times of extreme polarization it was like walking on eggshells for six years on end. I believe that I have contributed to a greater understanding of what a jurisdictional initiative is, and that acting in landscapes is essential for chains to operate in an environment of risk reduction.

And yet I still think it was too little. PCI needs a structure commensurate with its complexity in order to advance further. The investment gap is immense, and the challenges will never be met if not through public and private collaboration.

And yet I still think it was too little. PCI needs a structure commensurate with its complexity in order to advance further. The investment gap is immense, and the challenges will never be met if not through public and private collaboration.

The PCI Institute must be that neutral space, which generates trust for such a difficult collaboration process. For this, it needs to become an intelligence center, based on the data it collects, to guide public and private actions in the territory on a scientific and consensual basis.

It needs to become an effective financial mechanism to put into practice investment models that address the needs and priorities established in the territory,?and combining different sources and types of resources. Priorities dictated not by the government, not by NGOs, not by the private sector, but decided by all.

It finally needs to expand its capacity to reach within Mato Grosso in priority territories, building with municipal governments and local actors a proposal for change, helping to bring solutions, partners and resources for this.

They ask me, why does a government like Mato Grosso not provide this structure? Well, that was never the idea. First, because the government needs to spend public money on things that the government has to deliver. Second, because this should not be a public structure, precisely because it needs to be neutral.

?For six years Mato Grosso has advanced a lot, and the response, both from buyers who demand “sustainable products”, and from investors, has been timid. It takes a gigantic communication effort, in a world of so much news, to guarantee some recognition.

The fact is that there is something incompatible between the climate emergency discourse that I hear in so many forums, and the complexity of putting actions and projects on the ground. There are thousands of hours of meetings in a tiring process of convincing and building, in addition to all the discussions on theories of change, consultations, risk analysis, compliance, outcomes and outputs, claims, safeguards that make the joy of lawyers and consultants. I understand that all of this is necessary, but I sincerely hope that donors and funds start to discuss ways to simplify the way investments land.

It is not at all difficult to know what the real needs are in priority territories. Much of my time, and even the confidence I gained, was simply by listening to people. ALL people. What we need more than a “let’s do it” spirit from anyone that really cares about the climate crisis.

Sharing financial mechanisms, monitoring, complementing investments in the same territory would make the account cheaper for everyone. This is what the PCI Institute has the potential to do.

All this convincing, demands a colossal effort of articulation and communication that I simply cannot do anymore. I pass the baton to others to take over from here, where my energy has run out. It was worth it, of course. No university in the world, no MBA would have been able to give me what Mato Grosso gave me in learning and practical experience. And I sincerely hope that some of the things we've achieved make a difference in people's lives.

And even after all that, I still believe I failed to explain PCI, after 6 years of talking about it... I'll try again. Think of Mato Grosso as if it were your neighborhood... How do you want to see it in 5, 10, 15 years? Shall we work together to get there? And it's not because some gringo wants to. It is because it is the place where we will be living, and our children will be living.

From what we have already achieved, I firmly believe that a model of a new form of low-carbon development can be born here. A model thought up years ago by Ignacy Sachs, based on biomass, biodiversity and biotechnology.

I owe many thanks.

First to all the organizations that were and are part of this great construction that is the PCI Strategy of Mato Grosso. I thak specilly the ones that from the beggining understood the importance of the initiative: ICV - Instituto Centro de Vida Marfrig Global Foods Amaggi IDH Earth Innovation Institute Agroicone Ecoarts Amazonia UNEM - Uni?o Nacional do Etanol de Milho , and I thank my small but brave team.

I thank this government of Mato Grosso. The first time I met Governor Mauro Mendes alone, I was taken to his office by the Secretary of the Civil House. He listened to what I had to say about PCI. He wrote down a phone number on a piece of paper and gave it to me. He told me: “this is my cell phone, if you need something call me”. I never cared because I actually saw him doing a lot more than I could manage, and I always felt indebted to him. What I saw Mauro do in the state administration I didn't think would be possible, and I'm happy that the population of Mato Grosso recognized that at the past election. On his behalf, I would like to thank the entire team of the State government, who embraced a project that was not born under his management and made it bigger. In ALL Secretariats of this government, I have always found open doors and support.

Thanks to the pioneers who supported PCI from the beginning, especially IDH for believing in my work. I also thank all the institutions that have expanded knowledge about jurisdictional initiatives, and that have always seen Mato Grosso as an example and a pioneer in this approach: 德国国际合作机构 CDP , CDP Latin America ; ISEAL , Tropical Forest Alliance , Proforest , Earthworm Foundation , United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) , Amsterdam Declarations Partnership, The Collaborative Soy Initiative , 世界银行 .

I thank KfW , the UK Government and the REM Program for which I was honored to be co-coordinator, and the formidable and dedicated team that has been created here in this work.