EU Regulatory Compliance with Landscape Impact: Achieving climate resilience and nature conservation through EU compliant, sustainable agricultural value chains and landscape measures in South America
In combination with political measures, deforestation-free supply chains can help to reduce deforestation and thus emissions and biodiversity loss and promote sustainable agriculture. The project advocates innovative tools verifying the compliance with EU regulation and other sustainability standards. The focus is on commodities such as soya, palm oil and beef, the production of which threatens forests. At the same time, the economic value of coffee, cocoa and beef will be uplifted in order to achieve economic added value and promote biodiversity. Landscape degradation is reduced, ecosystem restoration is improved and social justice is promoted through the integration of value chains, a landscape approach and favourable framework conditions. The project is being implemented in Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay and Peru and aims to foster the sustainable relations between Europe and South America.
- Countries
- Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru
- IKI funding
- 12,600,000.00 €
- Duration
- 04/2025 till 09/2030
- Status
- open
- Implementing organisation
- International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) - Switzerland
- Political Partner
-
- Ministry of Agricultural Development and Irrigation, MIDAGRI - Peru
- Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development - Colombia
- Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism (MinComercio) - Colombia
- Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MADES) - Paraguay
- Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism, MINCETUR - Peru
- National Forest and Wildlife Authority (SERFOR) - Peru
- Undersecretariat of Environment and Sustainable Development - Argentina
- Implementing Partner
-
- Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
- Conservation and Sustainable Development Foundation – FDSC (Colombia)
- Fundación Vida Silvestre Argentina - Argentinien
- Guyra Paraguay
- IUCN National Committee of the Netherlands
State of implementation/results
- Regional:
- The Project Launch Workshop was held in Quito, Ecuador (21–24 April 2026) with all consortium partners, aligning contributions to the five project Outputs, the four-level governance structure and the cross-cutting approaches of gender, safeguards, monitoring and communication. It was followed by the Work Package 2 (Landscapes) Planning Workshop in Bogotá, Colombia (7–10 July 2026), which addressed the technical dimension of the package that combines landscape conservation and restoration measures with innovative financial solutions and a gender approach under Outputs III and IV: partners agreed a shared definition of landscape, operating models differentiated for the Chaco and the Amazon, and roadmaps for governance mechanisms, gender-responsive restoration planning and the development of business cases. A consortium technical planning meeting for 2027–2028 will take place in Paraguay in November 2026, hosted by Guyra Paraguay, combining operational planning across the three work packages with field analysis of the soy and cattle-fattening production systems of the Chaco and their traceability and restoration opportunities.
- Argentina:
- Strategic collaboration was strengthened with key actors supporting deforestation-free agricultural supply chains, including WWF Germany, GIZ, the Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS) and IUCN Netherlands. Discussions identified synergies with the IKI Trade4EU project, opportunities to align the RTRS standard with the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), and potential expanded use of MapBiomas to monitor land-use change.
- Colombia:
- Strategic relationships were established with key actors across the cocoa value chain, including the National Federation of Cocoa Growers (Fedecacao), the National Business Association of Colombia (ANDI), Compañía Nacional de Chocolates, Casa Luker (Colombian cocoa processor and chocolate maker, one of the country's two largest cocoa buyers), EFI (European Forest Institute; supports EUDR legality and due-diligence work with the EU Delegation in Colombia) and APSColombia (the national sustainable palm oil platform of Colombia). These partnerships provide a strong basis for engaging producers and businesses in project implementation.
- Producer organizations suitable for collaboration were identified, creating opportunities to channel appropriate incentives and support towards producers and associations working to improve the sustainability and traceability of cocoa value chains.
- Paraguay:
- The Socio-environmental Traceability Registry for Cattle Establishments (RETSA-Carne) was officially launched in April 2026 under the leadership of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MIC), marking a major milestone towards greater traceability and socio-environmental transparency in the cattle value chain.
- The project team was fully established and equipped, enabling implementation and technical support to the MIC's Traceability Unit (UET).
- Five RETSA-Carne outreach and training workshops were conducted with cattle producers in the target departments, supporting awareness and uptake of the new traceability system.
- Four awareness-raising events engaged public and private stakeholders in the soybean sector, building support for more sustainable and traceable production and supply chains.
- Peru:
- The project was presented to the Regional Technical Coffee Roundtable of San Martín, initiating engagement with key coffee-sector stakeholders. A field visit to the Allima Cacao Cooperative in Chazuta on 5 May 2026 further strengthened direct engagement with producer organizations and identified opportunities to advance deforestation-free agricultural value chains.
Latest Update:
11/2026
Project relations
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