Context
Smallholders and Indigenous People of the Amazon region are still too often the victims of land conflicts; they need secure land titles to protect the forests in their plots of land and the surrounding forest areas more effectively against illegal deforestation. Socially, economically and environmentally fair development can only be achieved in the Amazon basin through clear property rights and the legal certainty they create.
Brazil’s current land tenure system, particularly in the Amazon region, is complex and sometimes incoherent due to the size of the rainforest, the settlement history and the various interests that exist. The areas along the federal highways were distributed among smallholders in the 1970s. These farmers were granted rights of use but not property rights to their plots of land. The lack of clear ownership structures is still conducive to land grabbing and often leads to violent land conflicts. Moreover, the lack of legal certainty creates an obstacle to long-term forest protection measures, such as the establishment of nature parks and protected areas for Indigenous People.
Brazil is aware of these problems and has developed legal and practical solutions to the land tenure issues in the Amazon region. The most important programme is Terra Legal (legal or ‘good’ land). The aim of Terra Legal is to legalise an area of 55 million hectares (an area around the size of France) that is currently owned by the state. This means that land titles are being granted to some 160,000 smallholder families who cultivate the land.
Objective
The process of granting property rights to publicly owned land in the Amazon region is accelerated. The local population is given legal certainty; the necessary conditions are created for the protection and sustainable use of the forest.
Approach
In cooperation with the Land Tenure Regularisation Secretariat for the Amazon (SERFAL) inside the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA), the Terra Legal programme’s administrative processes are being optimised. At the same time, cooperation between the regional authorities in the border area of the federal states of Acre, Amazonas and Rondônia – an area that is especially vulnerable to deforestation – and other implementing partners is being strengthened. Among other things, staff at SERFAL and other authorities receive training in implementing the new land tenure system in a coordinated manner.
In addition, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), GIZ cooperates with various government and civil society actors working to protect the tropical rainforest and safeguard the population’s rights. Support is given to programmes that allow the smallholders to farm their plots of land sustainably and to market their forest products.
Results
With the project’s support, 18,500 land titles have been granted so far.
Furthermore, the technical board for land assignment has been established in order to take decisions about the allocation of public land. The board consists of federal land tenure institutions and individuals responsible for indigenous issues and protected areas. It has assigned more than 11 million hectares of land in the process.
The project was also involved in establishing "Mutirão Integrado", a campaign in which various authorities and the local population teamed up to clarify ownership structures and at the same time register land use in the rural environment registry (CAR). Joint efforts of this kind reduce the transaction costs for everyone involved. At the same time, they improve the quality of survey data and strengthen the presence of the state in remote areas of the Amazon region.