Good governance to overcome chaos and manage public lands in Amazonia: The case of Acre-Brazil Paper prepared for presentation at the “ANNUAL WORLD BANK CONFERENCE ON LAND AND POVERTY” The World Bank - Washington DC, March 24-27, 2014

Good governance to overcome chaos and manage public lands in Amazonia: The case of Acre-Brazil REYDON, Bastiaan P. 1 SOUZA, Elyson F; SOUZA, Gisele E. A. B; SAKAMOTO, Camila S 2 MACIEL, Raimundo C. Gomes 3 1. Economist (USP), Master in Agronomy (USP), Doctor in Economical Development (IE/UNICAMP), Powder- by the University of Wisconsin - Madison, Free Teacher of the Institute of Economy of the State University of Campinas Studying for a Ph.D. in Development Economics at the University of Campinas, Brazil. 3. Professor of Departament of Economics at Federal University of Acre, Brazil.

Brazil is one of the countries with the highest land concentration in the world. Indicators /62006 Number of establishments (millions)5,05,74,84,9 Total area (millions of hectares)323,9369,6353,6294 Mean area (hectares)64,971,772,867,1 Gini Index0,8550,8590,8570,856 Area of the smaller 50% (%)2,52,42,3 Area of the larger 5% (%)68,769,768,869,3 Source: Censos Agropecuários, IBGE. In: REYDON, Table 1. Brazilian agricultural land structure.

Table 2. Some numbers on the rural conflicts in Brasil, The Brazilian agrarian question is yet to be solved and is still a major hindrance to the country’s development. In a total of 13 thousand episodes of land conflict. Year Num. of conflicts Num. of persons involved Conflicts in area (hectares) Num. of murders Num. of murder attempts Num. of death threats Num. of persons arrested Num. of aggressions Source: Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) in REYDON, 2011b, adapted.

Another problem created by the lack of land governance is the intense deforestation in the Amazon. The land regularization is vital for the sustainable development promotion in the Legal Amazon. Due to the lack of a cadastre and effective land property regulation in Brazil, the most common practice is the land possession, especially in the Amazon. Only 4% of the private areas (20 million hectares) have their registers validated by INCRA. There is more than 158 million hectares (32%) of land supposedly private without register validated by INCRA. Yet there is the remainder 21% which were not in neither of the above categories and are, therefore, technically considered public lands without allocatio Brazilian National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária).

Source: Barreto (2008), apud Reydon (2011b). Modified and freely translated from Portuguese. Figure 1. Juridical condition of land in the Amazon (% of area)

The major land problem in Brazil is the lack of land governance, which is caused by the specific historical construction process of an inadequate legal and institutional framework for this end. Source: Reydon (2011b ) Scheme 1. Brazilian current land administration institutional framework

The state of Acre is located in the extreme southwest of the Northern Region, inserted in the Brazilian Amazon, covers a land area of 16,422,136 ha, representing 1.93% of the land area of Brazil. Figure 2. Location of Acre in Brazil and in the South America

It is possible to have a glance at the land concentration. while the rural establishments with up to 100 hectares sum up 19.6 thousand and occupy and area of 670 thousand hectares (19% of the total). This testifies to the land concentration level in Acre, a commonplace for Brazilian states.

As Figure 5 shows, 88% of the state’s area is covered by forests, but some regions have high rates of deforestation. Figure 5. Acre’s deforestation Figure 3. Acre’s deforestation

The great majority of the producers declare themselves as proprietors of the land in which they work, about 69,23% of the producers, representing an area of more than 3 million hectares. IndicatorsEstablishments % of the totalArea (ha) % of the total Proprietor20, ,032, Settler without title3, , Tenant , Partner , Landholder3, , Producer without area1, Total29, ,528, Source: IBGE, Agricultural Census, Free translation. Table 4 – Producer’s condition in relation to the land, Acre, 2006.

DenominationQuantityArea (hectares) % of the Acre’s area Settlement Projects1071,641, Protected Areas (Integral Protection)31,563, Protected Areas (Sustainable Use)163,544, Indigenous Lands302,390, Subtotal1569,139, Land in process of discrimination9410, Non-destined public andsSeveral494, Dominical Lands4,086209, Areas under private domain - SNCR7,7495,081, Areas to be discriminatedSeveral1,086, Subtotal 7,283, State of Acre Total Area 16,422, Sources: SEMA, IBAMA, ITERACRE, Adapted, free translation from Portuguese. Table 6 – Acre’s lands current situation, 2006.

Under Brazilian law to track border is 150 km, and is considered critical to homeland defense. Following this law, land management of Acre would be the responsibility of the federal government. Even so, the local government makes land management using the Ecological Economic Zoning. Figure 4 -Borderlands in Acre

Land caotic situation in Acre 1,6 millions of ha of public land with no clear definition of which institution is in charge: SPU – if around rivers ITERACRE – if state level public land INCRA – because it is inside the 150 km of the border. Most deforestation occurs on public land;

Land caotic situation in Acre Only around 0.76 % of the properties are registered summing 33 % of the area; There are registers in the Notaries of Belem, of Manaus; There are stories saying that there are registers in Bolivia; What to do ? One proposition is the Participatory registration

 The participatory governance will, based on the knowledge of reality, the discussion of priorities for its use and proper oversight. With effective governance over land, particularly the creation of a modern cadastre and self powered, you can: 1- Ensure the rights of private property for different purposes: business, lease guarantees in obtaining credit for the granting of payments for environmental services and others; 2- Identify public lands and ensure their proper use for: creation of reserves, settlements or settlement; 3- Establish safer other land policies: land reform, land credit, taxation on the land; 4- Regular procurement processes for land : limit access to foreigners and with many land owners or other owners. A

Participatory Cadaster: a proposition for ACRE The participatory cadaster can, based on the knowledge of reality, create the conditions for a better land governance: use and ownership. With effective governance over land, particularly the creation of a modern cadastre, the country will: a.Ensure the rights of private property for different purposes: business, lease guarantees in obtaining credit for the granting of payments for environmental services and others; b.Identify public lands and ensure their proper use for: creation of reserves, settlements or settlement; c.Establish better other land policies: land reform, land credit, taxation on the land; d.Regular procurement processes for land : limit access to foreigners and with many land owners or other owners.

Historically, Acre confirms the idea that the lack of land governance in Brazil has economic, social and environmental problems consequences; Amazon land policies has had use and occupation rural and urban land chronic problems. With lack of regulation / proper governance in these markets; This practice becomes more serious when it reaches the border areas ranges occupied by extractive populations, which has the forest as a base of its subsistence. However, any policy from the development of NWFP to PES, to be effective requires a clear definition of property rights. Final Remarks