Since 2009, Brazilian legislation has already allowed land tenure regularization of small producers’ private properties (properties of up to 4 fiscal modules) to be carried out without the need for a field inspection, with the support of other means of proof, such as remote sensing, to certify the occupation. Such properties account for 95% of all private property holders without land titles registered with INCRA. Therefore, the real obstacles to the regularization of this great majority are not clear.
It is essential to understand the obstacles that render the current law and administrative structure unable to solve the problem of land tenure regularization, in addition to their failure to prevent the increase in deforestation in small and medium-sized properties¹. It is necessary to carry out a more in-depth diagnosis and consider adding mechanisms that effectively fight illegality. For this reason, we need more time to improve the Bill (PL) 2633/2020, which converted most of the text of Provisional Measure (MP) 910/2019, and should not be subjected to an urgency vote.
Throughout the processing of MP 910, the Brazilian Coalition on Climate, Forests and Agriculture maintained an open dialogue with several interlocutors from the government and Congress². Hence, we recognize that there were many advances in relation to the original text. However, some of the points still need to be more deeply discussed.
Such points include the strengthening of government bodies such as INCRA, a key element for the implementation of any land tenure legislation. In addition, land tenure liabilities must also take into consideration public areas, which have been suffering increasing invasions and land grabbing. A debate on the issuing of land titles to settlers and the allocation of more than 60 million hectares of public forests not designated for conservation and sustainable use is essential.
Considering that the dialogue on the topic is complex, requires the participation of different sectors of society and cannot be carried out during the pandemic and the remote work operation of the Legislative branch, the Brazilian Coalition suggests that Congress install a Special Commission, with due validity and mandate, to bring together experts and prepare studies that support the proposals to be debated. Meanwhile, the Executive branch could move forward with land tenure regularization of small properties, as well as the resumption of legitimization processes concerning indigenous and quilombola lands and the creation of Conservation Units, based on our current legislation. The Brazilian Coalition will be available to the Commission and Congress to contribute to this debate.
1 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-0537-2.epdf
2 The Brazilian Coalition expressed opinions on MP 910 – on the following dates: 05/08/20, 05/06/20, 05/03/20, 04/16/20, 04/02/20, 03/18/20, 02/12/20 and 02/06/20. All of the Coalition’s opinions are based on proposals contained in 2030-2050 Vision, in the Proposals for 2018 Election Candidates and in the movement’s Base Document.