First General Assembly 8-9 may - Sao Paulo, Brazil 
The Assembly was opened by the Swiss ambassador to Brazil, Rudolf Baerfuss, who reiterated the financial support that the Swiss government has given to the RTRS. The Dutch government, via the agricultural attaché at the embassy in Brasília, announced that it would contribute 100,000 euros to the RTRS for this year.
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Left: Opening speech from the Swiss Embassador in Brasil, Others: Participants of the General Assambly |
The first day of the General Assembly, Tuesday May 8, was opened to a wider audience (including NGOs, soy producers, trade associations and other entities that are considering joining the RTRS). In total 115 participants contributed this day in discussions on issues of relevance such as the Principles, Criteria, and Verification Development Group, outreach to stakeholders and other projects.
The organization's immediate task will be to develop globally applicable criteria and indicators for the production, processing and trade of soy in a responsible manner within a period of around 18 months. The RTRS Board selected the UK consultancy ProForest to carry out this task.
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Presentations and discussions about Principles, Criteria and Verification Development Process |
The General Assembly participants agreed that the draft principles discussed at the second roundtable conference in Asuncion in August last year constitute a starting point for this work. These principles include issues such as protecting biodiversity from conversion of natural habitats to agriculture, better agricultural practices, and full compliance with labour laws. The document will be written by a group of up to 20 people experts from around the world and from across the stakeholder spectrum.
The General Assembly elected an Executive Board whose President is Christopher Wells of ABN AMRO. There are four Vice Presidents. They represent ABIOVE, Desarrollo Agrícola del Paraguay, Grupo Maggi, and WWF.
One of the conclusions is that countries such as China and the United States should have a greater participation in this discussion.
The next Round Table meeting will take place in March in Argentina.
Documents:
• Agenda May 8 and May 9
• Participant list May 8 and May 9
• Presentations May 8 and May 9
Note: The minutes will be endorsed at the next General Assembly 2008.
• Press release
• RTRS Status Report
Seminar General Assembly May 8
• Status report, Christopher Wells
• Lessons learnt from other processes of criteria development, Proforest
• Introduction PCVDG, Bella Roscher
• Continuation of PCVDG with emphasis on verification and auditing systems, Jan-Kees Vis and Anders Lindhe (Proforest)
• Case of Soy producers for RTRS, Ocimar Villela
• Case of Industry for RTRS, Frans Claassen
• Case of Civil Society for RTRS, Daniel Nepstad
Presentations of General Assambly May 9
• Election of the Executive Board, Katrin Gohtmann
• Approval of annual report 2006 and of workplan 2007, Christopher Wells
• Report of the treasurer for year 2006, Jeroen Douglas
• Approval of budget 2007, Jeroen Douglas
• Presentation and approval of RTRS By-laws, Katrin Gohtmann
• Presentation and approval of Anti-Trust guidelines and Confidentiality Agreement, Katrin Gohtmann
• Amendment of the statutes
• Mediation Committee