Regulation of the Participatory Guarantee Systems in Brazil - A case StudyLaercio Meirelles Introduction In 2004, representatives of different initiatives related to certification of organic agriculture not associated to third-party certification schemes, met at the International Seminar on Alternative Certification[1], event organized by MAELA and IFOAM in Torrez (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil). During the seminar, experiences from 21 countries were shared and by analysis, it was observed that although they were developed in different contexts, they converged in a set of shared principles and values. Since the seminar, these organic certification systems operate through a common working framework and were designated as Participatory Guarantee Systems (commonly abbreviated as PGS). Since this first encounter, the different PGS initiatives set off a network for collaborative work with the purpose of strengthening these systems and hence the organic production system and marketing strategy, mainly local, in which they operate. The strengthening of such systems also involves their legal recognition. Brazil, a pioneer in the PGS, was also the first country to incorporate this in their legislation relating to organic production, thereby giving it the same rank of validity as the third party certification system. The following is a brief systematization of the process developed in Brazil for the inclusion of PGS in the regulation of organic production. This case study aims at highlighting the key elements of the process in order to allow eventual adaptation to other contexts in other countries. Background When, in 1994, the Brazilian government (through the Ministry of Agriculture - MAPA) took the first initiatives for the regulation of organic production, the organic sector in the country had many voices whose main disagreement centered around the guarantee systems:u part of the Brazilian organic sector only recognized the third-party certification, and doubted the credibility of participatory certification as a reliable quality assurance scheme. u The other part required the incorporation of other existing guarantee schemes in national legislation and were supported by thousands of farmers who defend them.The relevance and impact of the debate on organic certification, promoted the organization of the proponents of conformity assessment systems different to the third-party certification. As a result, a wide range of initiatives on participatory certification systems1 emerged throughout Brazil, the majority of them in the south of Brazil. The articulation of those initiatives resulted in the establishment of the Red Ecovida de Agroecologia in 1998, formed by small-scale organic farmers, technicians and consumers from three southern states. The disagreement within the organic agriculture sector on the regulation of organic certification systems was not resolved. As a result, the process of developing the general legal framework of the organic sector was stopped for some years. Actors In October, 2002, the first National Encounter on Agroecology (ENA by its acronym in Portuguese) was held with the purpose of promoting agroecology and bringing the actors in this field together. Since then, a group of the national organic sector created the Organic Agriculture Group (GAO by its acronyms in Portuguese), which was composed of producers, marketers, NGOs, certification agencies and personnel from federal offices. The GAO was