Amazon Seal Program created to boost services and products in the Legal Amazon
In brief
Federal Decree No. 12.285/2024 was published, instituting the Amazon Seal Program, within the scope of the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services, with the aim of developing national guidelines to standardize and certify industrialized services and products that are demonstrably produced in the Legal Amazon, using raw materials and inputs from the biodiversity of the Amazon biome, meeting pre-established environmental, economic and social sustainability requirements.
More details
On December 2, 2024, Federal Decree No. 12.285/2024 was published, which came into force on the date of its publication and instituted the Amazon Seal Program, which has the following objectives:
- Recognize and promote services and industrialized products produced in the Legal Amazon, in a socio-economically and environmentally sustainable manner, whose raw materials or inputs come from the biodiversity of the Amazon biome;
- Adding value, increasing quality and boosting the growth and competitiveness of services and industrialized products produced in a socio-economic and environmentally sustainable manner;
- Contribute to reducing inequality and to sustainable development;
- Strengthen the vectors of the bioeconomy with a positive impact along production chains;
- Provide an accurate and verifiable information tool for products and services from the Legal Amazon;
- Expanding the insertion of Amazon bioeconomy products into national markets and global value chains; and
- Recognizing and valuing the production and knowledge of indigenous peoples, traditional peoples and communities and family farmers.
The certification of services and products through the Amazon Seal will be voluntary and third-party, and the criteria for obtaining it will be defined by a collegiate body, which will include the participation of government, production and organized civil society sectors in the Legal Amazon, including indigenous peoples, traditional communities and family farmers.
In addition, it is expressly stablished that the Amazon Seal will not be granted to services and products that directly or indirectly: (a) promote deforestation or degradation of native forests in the Amazon; (b) represent a risk to biodiversity or contribute to the extinction of endemic or threatened species in the Amazon biome; and (c) violate animal rights, including practices that result in mistreatment, inhumane exploitation or use of wild species in disagreement with environmental and animal protection legislation.
