Beef on Track supports sustainable sourcing in the Brazilian Amazon

Brazilian cattle production is one of the leading drivers of tropical deforestation worldwide. This greatly affects the Amazon, the world’s largest and most biodiverse forest, where pasture expansion is the direct driver of the majority of deforestation. However, deforestation has been falling due to programmes like Beef on Track, a multi-stakeholder initiative to prevent deforestation and human rights violations in Amazonian cattle supply chains.

Beef on Track helps companies that produce or buy beef to harmonise and strengthen their supply chain policies and monitoring systems. It also provides them with criteria and methodologies to follow as they implement their commitments to responsible sourcing in the Brazilian Amazon. These include minimum criteria for preventing deforestation, protecting Indigenous Peoples and traditional peoples, and avoiding slave labour abuses. Beef on Track is led by AFi Coalition member Imaflora, along with the Brazilian Federal Prosecutor’s Office, and the programme supports company action in line with the Accountability Framework.

Beef on Track’s Monitoring Protocol 2.0

Beef on Track’s Monitoring Protocol 2.0 for cattle suppliers came into effect in January 2025. The updates build on Beef on Track’s established criteria while strengthening existing rules for the 124 slaughterhouses that have signed Beef on Track, raising the bar for these companies. The new Monitoring Protocol will improve legality and accountability in the sector and increase the confidence for buyers that when they purchase from a company adhering to Beef on Track, they are obtaining ethically-reared beef that is free from illegal deforestation or human rights violations.

The updates to Beef on Track were determined through consultations with experts and stakeholders, including Câmaras Técnica e Social (Technical and Social Advisory Boards) in the Brazilian state of Pará, and in-depth discussions with the Brazilian Public Prosecutor’s Office. The updated Monitoring Protocol was launched in August 2024, giving the cattle sector time to adapt to the new rules before they came into effect this year. The full text is available on the Beef on Track website in English and Portuguese.

Strengthening sustainability in the Brazilian cattle sector

Version 2.0 adds two new criteria to the Monitoring Protocol, and strengthens several of the 12 criteria found in Version 1. Criteria used to block non-compliant producers from selling cattle to Beef on Track signatories are reinforced by including additional public databases of environmental crimes and broadening the list of recognised Indigenous Peoples and traditional peoples. This includes a new criterion that blocks producers whose cattle grazing areas encroach upon Quilombola lands. Quilombola are traditional Afro-Brazilian communities who have been vulnerable to land grabbing.

Potential loopholes have also been closed by blocking supply chain access to irregular producers that alter their property boundaries or deforest their lands incrementally. Of particular importance is a new criterion increasing monitoring to all properties that producers own within the same geographic region. This criterion aims to prevent producers from ‘laundering’ cattle between Beef on Track compliant and non-compliant ranches. Any producers with deforestation or human rights violations on any of their local properties will be blocked from selling to slaughterhouses that are members of the Beef on Track programme.

Implications for beef buyers and financial institutions

Changes to the Beef on Track Monitoring Protocol have important implications for financial institutions and companies that purchase Brazilian beef and leather. As Beef on Track signatories are audited for their compliance with Monitoring Protocol criteria, buyers and investors can easily assess the performance of meatpackers on deforestation and human rights. The rigorous criteria and monitoring, reporting, and verification rules of the programme offer a positive outlook for the sustainability of the Brazilian Amazon’s cattle sector.

Development and implementation of Beef on Track has followed the Accountability Framework’s guidance for responsible commodity supply chains. By closing loopholes, expanding the scope of monitoring and verification rules, and strengthening supply chain management, the companies committed to Beef on Track will be better positioned to reduce their impacts on deforestation and conversion in the Brazilian Amazon.

To learn more about the AFi’s work with Beef on Track and other industry initiatives, explore our suite of case studies.