Relational Infrastructures for Planetary Health: Network Governance and Inner Development in Brazil’s Traceable Beef Export System

This study analyzes the relational architecture of Brazilian traceable beef exports using a tripartite network model that connects certified meatpacking plants, AgriTrace sustainability protocols, and importing countries. By leveraging export authorization data from the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, it is shown that certification protocols function not merely as compliance tools but as relational governance infrastructures, mediating legitimacy, market access, and coordination within global value chains. Bipartite projections allowed the deriving and analyzing of two secondary networks: one mapping connections between meatpacking plants that share certifications, and the other linking consumer nations through common supply channels. The meatpacking plant network displays high modularity, featuring two dominant clusters alongside several smaller, regionally coherent clusters. This structure reflects diverse governance capabilities and strategic certification adoptions. Conversely, the consumer nation network shows lower modularity but identifies central hubs that organize international demand and signal regulatory alignment. These patterns reveal underlying dynamics of coopetition, where actors collaborate through shared standards yet compete through innovation. By integrating the Inner Development Goals (IDG) framework, it is revealed internal capacities, such as trust, complexity awareness, and shared purpose, underpinning the efficacy of traceability systems as ethical and adaptive infrastructures. This values-based lens provides a novel perspective on how technical systems can foster resilient, inclusive, and sustainable trade, thereby contributing to planetary health and human-centered development in global livestock governance.