Capacity Building
In a topic as complex as promoting social and environmental sustainability in the food and feed supply chains, continuous learning is essential to overcome the enormous challenges we face. The primary goal of our capacity building program is to engage stakeholders in their sustainability journey by creating a platform to share information through our webinars and training courses.
The ProTerra capacity-building strategy is based on three key pillars that support each other and generate synergies to create a bigger impact:
- Raise awareness on relevant topics, such as biodiversity, sustainable practices and how to implement these.
- Build knowledge about the ProTerra Standard and its applicability.
- Support the implementation and effective use of the ProTerra Standard by providing ProTerra Network Members and stakeholders tools, such as webinars and training sessions.
Webinars
ProTerra Foundation organises webinars regularly to inform stakeholders about ProTerra Standard developments, supply chain challenges, market developments and other relevant topics.
Here you will find a collection of recorded webinars where experts and stakeholders present their views and experience.
The webinar had the participation of Hannelore Beerlandt, Expert on Global Agricultural Commodities, Leslie Sajous from ISEAL, David D´Hollander from Proforest and Juliana Lopes from Amaggi. The webinar emphasised that the EUDR is only one part of a larger journey towards deforestation and conversion-free commodity production. That traceability and effective risk management are critical components, and that supply chain collaboration is essential. It was also highlighted that smallholders have an important role to play and need to be involved in the process. It was concluded that clarity is essential to support all actors in the supply chain and that many challenges remain.
Download: ProTerra Webinar – EUDR
Learn more: https://www.proterrafoundation.org/news/highlights-of-the-proterra-webinar-on-the-eudr/
View the webinar here: ProTerra Webinar EUDR
ProTerra Foundation organized a webinar to present version 4.1 of the ProTerra Standard and how it helps to address supply chain risks. In addition, the benefits of being certified and taking part in the ProTerra Network have been highlighted.
Topic: ProTerra Standard v4.1
Learn more: ProTerra Standard v4.1 Webinar – Highlights | ProTerra Foundation
View the webinar here: ProTerra V4.1 Webinar – Youtube
The ProTerra Foundation recognises that in many parts of the world there is a significant gap between the reality and sustainable agricultural practices, therefore regional interpretations may be necessary to help businesses engage and ultimately implement overtime a sustainable approach.
Smallholder farmers are often vulnerable to risks such as drought, floods, and price instability limiting their benefits from agricultural production. They rely on the forests for their food and livelihood and, at the same time, their actions and activities may have a high impact on the environment.
Downloads: ProTerra Standard for Smallholders
View the webinar here: ProTerra Indian Interpretation for Smallholders Webinar – Youtube
The Foundation has created the European Interpretation of the ProTerra Standard aiming to help businesses engage on local markets, and to support the improvement of local agricultural practices so that stakeholders can gain confidence in products coming from crop producing areas, such as Eastern Europe.
As part of a webinar series, ProTerra Foundation held a session about sustainability in the European context and the current challenges in the regulation of gene-edited crops.
Download: ProTerra Interpretation for Europe
Learn more: Webinar on Sustainability in the European Context Highlights | ProTerra Foundation
View the webinar here: ProTerra Series 1 – Sustainability in the European Context – Youtube
In this second webinar organized by the ProTerra Foundation, Fundação Espaço Eco (FEE – BASF) presented a study identifying hotspots in the life cycle of a product with good opportunities for improvements, considering cultivation, industrial, packing, logistics and disposal.
The second speaker Marjon Castelijns, from Future Proof Shipping talked about how to accelerate the energy transition in the shipping industry, for instance, reducing carbon footprint when it comes to marine and inland water transportation.
The session was closed by Dr Konstantin Rizos, from FoodChain ID Testing GmbH, who explained the complexity of testing GMOs in agricultural goods and presented minimum requirements in the field of GMO analytics.
Topic: Environmental Impact
Learn more: https://www.proterrafoundation.org/webinar-how-future-trends-can-help-us-to-reduce-environmental-impact
View the webinar here: ProTerra Series 2 – How can future trends help us to reduce environmental impact? – Youtube
ProTerra Foundation invited Frank Gort, from Nevedi, Jean Louis Peyraud, from the French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment and Heleen van den Hombergh, from IUCN to jointly discuss circular agro-food systems, the role of livestock in sustainable supply chains and how organisations can match between insight, initiatives and tools to address challenges.
Topic: Livestock and sustainable supply chains
View the webinar here: ProTerra Series 3 – Circular agro-food systems: the role of livestock in sustainable supply chains and tools to address challenges – Youtube
ProTerra invited ENGA, the European Non-GMO Industry Association and ARGE Gentechnik-frei to present an update on the dynamics of the non-GMO market and its consumer value and the EU Commission’s study on new genomic techniques
ENGA is an international industry association, based in Brussels, tha represents the interests of the European non-GMO sector, being the voice of the non-GMO food and feed industry at the EU level.
Florian Faber from ARGE Gentechnik-frei presented the history of the non-GMO market in Europe with updated information on the key challenges that the industry faces, adding some interesting insights on the market developments.
The second panellist, Heike Moldenhauer, from ENGA, provided details on the EU developments, such as the current status of new GMOs and the EU Commission’s plan to deregulate them, process and timetable, and the impacts of deregulation on the future of non-GMO production.
Topic: EU Commission’s study on new genomic techniques
View the webinar here: ProTerra Webinar – Update on the EU Commission’s study on new genomic techniques – YouTube
The ProTerra Foundation invited Marco Daldoss Pirri, from CDP Europe, and Jasper Scholten, from Blonk Consultants, to give us an overview on how companies can achieve forest-positive supply chains in view of the EU legislative development, on the various footprint label initiatives, consumers choices and how certification can play an important role.
Topic: Legislation, Deforestation, Land Use Change, Footprint Labels
Learn more: https://www.proterrafoundation.org/news/proterra-webinar-the-pathway-to-forest-positive-supply-chains/
View the webinar here: ProTerra Webinar – The pathway to forest-positive supply chains – YouTube
The webinar was organised together with ADM and Solidaridad and focused on the potential key issues and challenges of the Indian market and the ProTerra India Smallholders Interpretation.
The main learnings were the complexity of the Indian supply chain, that long-term partnerships are crucial when supporting farmers to achieve better results, and that training is essential to help farmers overcome the challenges they face.
Downloads: ProTerra Standard for Smallholders
Learn more: https://www.proterrafoundation.org/news/webinar-highlights-indias-sustainability-challenges/
View the webinar here: ProTerra Webinar – Indian Sustainability Challenges
How do we scale up and collaborate better to achieve land conversion and deforestation-free, responsible soy?
Motivated by this question, a collaboration framework, the Collaborative Soy Initiative (CSI)[1], was created in June 2019, aimed at increasing stakeholder engagement and creating an impact on a global scale.
The ProTerra Foundation has been actively involved in the CSI since the very beginning and is a steering committee member.
Topic: Land Use Change
Learn more: https://www.proterrafoundation.org/news/land-use-change-and-soy-webinar-highlights/
View the webinar here: CSI Webinar – Land use change and soy – Youtube
This webinar was organized by ProTerra Foundation under the umbrella of the Collaborative Soy Initiative (CSI) and focused on the volatility of the soy market and the sustainability impact of changing prices and premiums. The goal was to explain how and why price volatility and the lack of clear commitments damage sustainability and why long-term commitments are crucial to build up sustainable supply chains and relationships globally.
Topic: Market Volatility
View the webinar here: CSI Webinar – The volatility of the soy market sustainability impact of changing prices and premiums – Youtube
During this dialogue, session participants were able to add their comments or pose their questions and doubts on how to deal with volatility and how to turn the tide by offering farmers and traders more security to invest in sustainability.
Topic: Market Volatility
View the webinar here: CSI Webinar – Soy Volatility Dialogue Session – Youtube
What is agroecology, what are current efforts to promote its principles in soy production, and what more can be done to promote agroecological practices in mainstream soy markets?
Based on the IUCN NL report on Soy and agroecology bridging the gap to the mainstream market, Jinke van Dam, from IUCN NL and Ulises Martinez Ortiz, from the University of Buenos Aires presented some key characteristics of agroecology and provided information on practical cases in Argentinian farms.
Emese van Maanen, from the ProTerra Foundation, explained the role of certification in soy production focusing that all have a role to play in ensuring environmentally and socially responsible supply chains develop sustainably. The last speaker Miguel Crespo from Probioma described in detail some of the agroecological practices used in Bolivia which can be a game-changer in soy production worldwide.
Topic: Soy and agroecology
View the webinar here: CSI webinar: Soy and agroecology: bridging the gap to the mainstream market? – YouTube
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Training Courses
We offer trainings to help organisations engage in promoting social and environmental sustainability in their food and feed supply chains. The ProTerra Foundation has published a series of e-learning courses aimed at providing stakeholders with information on the ProTerra Standard and its applicability, with quizzes and forums to help participants engage and connect.
Key benefits of the ProTerra Training Courses:
- Practical knowledge about the applicability and principles of the ProTerra Standard;
- Know-how to identify and tackle supply chain risks;
- Ability to implement the ProTerra Standard in supply chains;
- Relationship-building opportunities with ProTerra staff and like-minded stakeholders.
ProTerra Auditor Training
Successful completion of this training is a requirement for all auditors to conduct ProTerra audits for certification purposes.
We recommend that businesses or sites implementing the ProTerra Standard also attend this training to conduct first party, internal audits as a part of the preparation and to become familiar with the technical details of the Standard.
This training programme is regularly updated, ensuring that participants have the knowledge they need for the implementation of the ProTerra Standard.
ProTerra Standard V4.1 Training
This self-guided training is aimed at those who are seeking an introduction to the ProTerra Standard, through this course, participants will gain basic knowledge of the ProTerra Standard, its requirements and principles, participants will engage in quizzes to deepen their knowledge. Recommended for businesses that want to learn more about the ProTerra Standard and that are implementing or planning to implement the standard. After successful completion of the training, a certificate of participation will be granted to participants.
ProTerra Europa V1.0 Training
The European Interpretation of the ProTerra Standard was created to help businesses engage on local markets, and to support the improvement of local agricultural practices so that stakeholders can gain confidence in products coming from crop producing areas, such as Eastern Europe.
We have developed the ProTerra Europa Training, which is a self-guided course that aims to explain ProTerra Network Members how to apply the ProTerra Europa within their companies and supply chains. After successful completion of the training, a certificate of participation will be granted to participants.
ProTerra Smallholders Interpretation V2.0 Training
The ProTerra Foundation has developed the Interpretation for Smallholders, which aims at supporting the continuous development of smallholders’ agricultural activities. ProTerra understands that any effort in implementing sustainable agricultural practices also contributes to the improvement of smallholder livelihood and life quality in many aspects. This self-guided training helps participants understand and apply the requirements and principles of the Smallholders Interpretation by focusing on the details of this interpretation. After successful completion of the training, a certificate of participation will be granted to participants.
ProTerra Insecta V1.0 Training
ProTerra has developed the ProTerra Insecta Standard to cover sustainable topics within the insect food/feed supply chains. This self-guided training helps participants understand and apply the specific requirements of this new standard.
After successful completion of the training, a certificate of participation will be granted to the participants.
