March 14, 2024

09:03

Ricardo Chaves – From Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS (AM) – This month, the Amazon Research Institute (IPAM) launched the booklet “For an Amazon free of land grabbing”. The aim is to strengthen collective understanding of the problem and offer paths for those who want to delve deeper into the issue. The material seeks to encourage popular education and coordinate efforts to combat deforestation.

Through the tool, the research institution seeks to promote solutions for the conservation of the Amazon and, to this end, the proposal presented in the booklet brings key elements for the conservation of the biome and proposes democratizing information, as well as expanding dialogues. According to IPAM, the invasion of public lands and forests by land grabbers is the biggest cause of illegal deforestation in the region.

Studies carried out by the institution show that half of the biome’s deforestation between 2019 and 2021 took place on public land. For the organization, this represents “a real plundering of the Brazilian people’s public assets”.

Increase in land grabbing

Land grabbing in the Amazon has grown substantially in recent years. This is revealed by the IPAM survey carried out between 2018 and 2022. The crime is ancient and dates back to the time of Brazil’s Empire (1822-1889). According to the organization, land grabbers use the National Rural Environmental Registry System (Sicar) to fraudulently declare public land as private property.

The declaration is made through the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR), which plays a crucial role in the environmental management of rural properties, but does not serve as a land instrument or proof that a person owns the declared area.

Data consolidated by IPAM by the end of 2020 shows that more than 18 million hectares of undesignated public forests were illegally declared in SICAR as private properties. These forests are currently the most affected by land grabbing.

Data from the Climate Policy Initiative reveals this situation based on the ratio between CAR registrations with analysis completed and the total number of registrations awaiting validation by the states. So far, only 2% have been validated. Among the nine Amazonian states, only Mato Grosso had a completion rate higher than 5%.

Fight against land grabbing

The booklet outlines seven proposed actions to solve and reduce illegal deforestation in the Amazon. The understanding is that they should be coordinated between the public sector, the private sector and civil society. See below.

Cancel and prevent the creation of irregular rural property registries overlapping with undesignated public forests;
Define a use for all public forests that have not yet been set aside;
Strengthen enforcement and punishment of land grabbers;
Promote cooperation between sectors to support actions by the Judiciary and Public Prosecutors against land grabbing;
Create a task force in the Amazon states against land grabbing;
Implement and improve traceability mechanisms;
Support grassroots initiatives to combat land grabbing.

Read the full booklet: