A historic step towards organic certification of managed pirarucu

By Talita de Oliveira | OPAN

After nearly a decade of mobilization and the impact of the civil society, the arapaima is managed in a sustainable manner can, in short, to be recognized as the product, subject to certification. According to the new wording of the rules, which will be made via the inter-Ministerial directive, and defines the criteria for the certification of the products resulting from the extraction of the sustainable, organic, and was presented at a public hearing was held on the may in the city of Manaus, as part of the agenda of the 13th Meeting of the Coletivo do Pirarucu.

Before it is linked to the Ministries of Agriculture and Livestock (MAP), and from the Environment and Climate Change (MMA), the new ordinance shall also be included in the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture (MPA), and also proposes the inclusion of animal products, among which can be certified organic is a significant achievement for the peoples and traditional communities in the extractive industries.

The first year Of the Vita, the director of the Department of Policies to stimulate the bio-based economy, the National office of the bio-based economy in the ministry, said that the rules which until then included only the products of plant and fungal. The update, which is planned to be signed during the Week of the Environment, will it be possible to certify the product from the extraction of the animal. “The whole context of the certification, it brings in a process of differentiation and the enhancement of the product, and it could improve the price in the market, and the access to the policy-makers. We are here today to present the work of all these years, ‘ he said.

The public hearing was attended by approximately 80 participants, including representatives of the ministry of the MMA, MAPA, and the MPA, in addition to the members of the Collective do Pirarucu, the Rede Maniva de Agroecologia do Amazonas (REMA) and other civil society organizations.

The history of the mobilization of

The proposal for the certification of the arapaima has been discussed in the year 2015, from the dialogue initiated by the Association of agricultural Producers of the Carauari (Asproc), and has gained more power since 2018, when the group of the Arapaima has developed a motion calling for the inclusion of the fishing regulations for the organic. 

Since then, it has been a process, an intense articulation that was involved in the writing of the bids, reviews, techniques, and the creation of a working group of the Committee on Organic Production in the Amazon CPOrg/ – AM) and the discussion in order to adapt to IN paragraph 17 (world MAP/S) on the specifics of the management of the pirarucu. In spite of the challenges posed by the pandemic of Covid-19, and in a political environment unfavorable to the year 2022, the process is advanced and the steps to be completed, in 2025, with a wide participation of government agencies and civil society organizations.

The update of the IN-and reflects on the need to recognise the value of social and environmental arapaima is managed and value is the job of managers and the manejadoras. ‘It has been 10 years of discussion, and the insistence that rules go. The market will not solve 100% problem, you have to focus also on the policy. One of our main challenges is to make the products that generate the preservation is so profitable, as to the products that cause the destruction,’ he said Adevaldo Day, the president of the Memorial to the Chico Mendes (LBM) and is a member of the Group.

This shift in focus is recorded on the article, “The organic certification as part of a strategy to strengthen the chain of the pirarucu fish from sustainable forest management in the Amazon,” and was presented at the XII Congress of Ecology, held in Rio de Janeiro in 2023. In the process you will also gain a lot of visibility in the film ‘ Pirarucu Organic”, which was produced by the Institute for Sustainable Development in Mamirauá (dme files), and was released in 2024, with the statements of the representatives of the organizations involved.

Next steps

With the release of the new rules set for the next few days, all the efforts will turn to building procedures, and methods are directed to the certification of the arapaima is managed. This process will be conducted in conjunction with the REMA, the Body of a Participatory Assessment of Conformity (OPAC) Maniva, the CPOrg/AM, on the MAP, and the Coletivo do Pirarucu, based on a Participatory System to Guarantee the Organic (GSP).

“As the OPAC, we’re going to move on to the scope of the animal, and to contribute to this building, which is being developed in the areas,” said Ramon Morato, co-ordinator of the CPOrg/AM. He also called attention to the role of the amazon in the process, and the importance of making the certification, thus making the product more accessible to the public.

“We’ve got a very interesting, and something with a DNA of amazon, which comes out here, and I will teach you the very system that is participatory, and social control, the internal legislation of the organic produce at the national level. While the movement of the agro-ecosystem, and our effort is that there is a widespread use of the certification do just that, and these products could be accessible to the population,” he said.