IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/lauspo/v87y2019ics0264837719304077.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Who owns Brazilian lands?

Author

Listed:
  • Sparovek, Gerd
  • Reydon, Bastiaan Philip
  • Guedes Pinto, Luís Fernando
  • Faria, Vinicius
  • de Freitas, Flavio Luiz Mazzaro
  • Azevedo-Ramos, Claudia
  • Gardner, Toby
  • Hamamura, Caio
  • Rajão, Raoni
  • Cerignoni, Felipe
  • Siqueira, Gabriel Pansani
  • Carvalho, Tomás
  • Alencar, Ane
  • Ribeiro, Vivian

Abstract

Land tenure in many parts of Brazil remains uncertain and controversial. These problems have recently been exacerbated by changes in the legal framework regulating protected areas and the land market. A particular challenge facing attempts to improve land tenure security and governance in Brazil is the lack of a single, integrated assessment of all types of lands. Here we address this problem and present a first, integrated map of Brazilian land tenure encompassing all official data sources pertaining to both public and private lands. Of the total (8.5 million km2) 36.1% of all lands are public (with 6.4% officially undesignated), 44.2% are private, and 16.6% are unregistered or with unknown tenure. Strikingly, overlaps among land tenure categories sum to 50% of the registered territory of Brazil. A clearer understanding of uncertainties in land tenure, and the spatial distribution of those uncertainties can help guide research and public policies focused on minimizing land conflicts and strengthening governance and territorial planning to improve economic, environmental and social outcomes from land use in Brazil.

Suggested Citation

  • Sparovek, Gerd & Reydon, Bastiaan Philip & Guedes Pinto, Luís Fernando & Faria, Vinicius & de Freitas, Flavio Luiz Mazzaro & Azevedo-Ramos, Claudia & Gardner, Toby & Hamamura, Caio & Rajão, Raoni & Ce, 2019. "Who owns Brazilian lands?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:87:y:2019:i:c:s0264837719304077
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104062
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837719304077
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104062?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Azevedo-Ramos, Claudia & Moutinho, Paulo, 2018. "No man’s land in the Brazilian Amazon: Could undesignated public forests slow Amazon deforestation?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 125-127.
    2. Pedro R. R. Rochedo & Britaldo Soares-Filho & Roberto Schaeffer & Eduardo Viola & Alexandre Szklo & André F. P. Lucena & Alexandre Koberle & Juliana Leroy Davis & Raoni Rajão & Regis Rathmann, 2018. "The threat of political bargaining to climate mitigation in Brazil," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(8), pages 695-698, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Azevedo-Ramos, Claudia & Moutinho, Paulo & Arruda, Vera Laísa da S. & Stabile, Marcelo C.C. & Alencar, Ane & Castro, Isabel & Ribeiro, João Paulo, 2020. "Lawless land in no man’s land: The undesignated public forests in the Brazilian Amazon," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    2. Porro, Roberto & Porro, Noemi Sakiara Miyasaka, 2022. "State-led social and environmental policy failure in a Brazilian forest frontier: Sustainable Development Project in Anapu, Pará," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    3. Stabile, Marcelo C.C. & Guimarães, André L. & Silva, Daniel S. & Ribeiro, Vivian & Macedo, Marcia N. & Coe, Michael T. & Pinto, Erika & Moutinho, Paulo & Alencar, Ane, 2020. "Solving Brazil's land use puzzle: Increasing production and slowing Amazon deforestation," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    4. Paulo Moutinho & Claudia Azevedo-Ramos, 2023. "Untitled public forestlands threaten Amazon conservation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-4, December.
    5. Shinde, Nilesh N. & Do Valle, Stella Z. Schons & Maia, Alexandre Gori & Amacher, Gregory S., 2022. "Can an environmental policy contribute to the reduction of land conflict? Evidence from the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) in the Brazilian Amazon," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322584, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Niemeyer, Julia & Vale, Mariana M., 2022. "Obstacles and opportunities for implementing a policy-mix for ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change in Brazil's Caatinga," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    7. Mathews, Mason Clay, 2021. "How village leaders in rural Amazonia create bonding, bridging, and linking social capital configurations to achieve development goals, and why they are so difficult to maintain over time," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    8. Delaroche, Martin & Le Tourneau, François-Michel & Daugeard, Marion, 2022. "How vegetation classification and mapping may influence conservation: The example of Brazil’s Native Vegetation Protection Law," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    9. Jorge Garcia-Arias & Alan Cibils & Agostina Costantino & Vitor B. Fernandes & Eduardo Fernández-Huerga, 2021. "When Land Meets Finance in Latin America: Some Intersections between Financialization and Land Grabbing in Argentina and Brazil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-37, July.
    10. Marjorie M. Guarenghi & Danilo F. T. Garofalo & Joaquim E. A. Seabra & Marcelo M. R. Moreira & Renan M. L. Novaes & Nilza Patrícia Ramos & Sandra F. Nogueira & Cristiano A. de Andrade, 2023. "Land Use Change Net Removals Associated with Sugarcane in Brazil," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-26, February.
    11. Reydon, Bastiaan Philip & Fernandes, Vitor Bukvar & Telles, Tiago Santos, 2020. "Land governance as a precondition for decreasing deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    12. Benzeev, Rayna & Wiens, Ashton & Piotto, Daniel & Newton, Peter, 2023. "Property size and forest cover were key determinants of forest restoration in Southern Bahia in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    13. Fendrich, Arthur Nicolaus & Barretto, Alberto & Sparovek, Gerd & Gianetti, Giovani William & da Luz Ferreira, Jaqueline & de Souza Filho, Carlos Frederico Marés & Appy, Bernard & de Guedes, Carlos Mar, 2022. "Taxation aiming environmental protection: The case of Brazilian Rural Land Tax," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    14. Almut Schilling-Vacaflor, 2021. "Integrating Human Rights and the Environment in Supply Chain Regulations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-15, August.
    15. Conceição, Katyanne V. & Chaves, Michel E.D. & Picoli, Michelle C.A. & Sánchez, Alber H. & Soares, Anderson R. & Mataveli, Guilherme A.V. & Silva, Daniel E. & Costa, Joelma S. & Camara, Gilberto, 2021. "Government policies endanger the indigenous peoples of the Brazilian Amazon," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    16. Lemos, Cassia M.G. & Beyer, Hawthorne L. & Runting, Rebecca K. & Andrade, Pedro R. & Aguiar, Ana P.D., 2023. "Multicriteria optimization to develop cost-effective pes-schemes to restore multiple environmental benefits in the Brazilian Atlantic forest," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    17. Lazaro, Lira Luz Benites & Giatti, Leandro Luiz & Bermann, Celio & Giarolla, Angelica & Ometto, Jean, 2021. "Policy and governance dynamics in the water-energy-food-land nexus of biofuels: Proposing a qualitative analysis model," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    18. Andrea Pacheco & Carsten Meyer, 2022. "Land tenure drives Brazil’s deforestation rates across socio-environmental contexts," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    19. Silva, Jonathan Gonçalves da & Almeida, Roselaine Bonfim de & Carvalho, Leandro Vinicios, 2023. "An economic analysis of a zero-deforestation policy in the Brazilian Amazon," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    20. Guidotti, Vinicius & Ferraz, Silvio Frosini de Barros & Pinto, Luis Fernando Guedes & Sparovek, Gerd & Taniwaki, Ricardo H. & Garcia, Lara Gabrielle & Brancalion, Pedro H.S., 2020. "Changes in Brazil’s Forest Code can erode the potential of riparian buffers to supply watershed services," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    21. Bastiaan Reydon & Gabriel Pansani Siqueira & Delaide Silva Passos & Stephan Honer, 2022. "Unclear Land Rights and Deforestation: Pieces of Evidence from Brazilian Reality," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-17, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tacconi, Luca & Rodrigues, Rafael J. & Maryudi, Ahmad, 2019. "Law enforcement and deforestation: Lessons for Indonesia from Brazil," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 1-1.
    2. dos Santos Massoca, Paulo Eduardo & Brondízio, Eduardo Sonnewend, 2022. "National policies encounter municipal realities: A critical analysis of the outcomes of the List of Priority Municipalities in curbing deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    3. Conceição, Katyanne V. & Chaves, Michel E.D. & Picoli, Michelle C.A. & Sánchez, Alber H. & Soares, Anderson R. & Mataveli, Guilherme A.V. & Silva, Daniel E. & Costa, Joelma S. & Camara, Gilberto, 2021. "Government policies endanger the indigenous peoples of the Brazilian Amazon," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    4. Fábio T. F. Silva & Alexandre Szklo & Amanda Vinhoza & Ana Célia Nogueira & André F. P. Lucena & Antônio Marcos Mendonça & Camilla Marcolino & Felipe Nunes & Francielle M. Carvalho & Isabela Tagomori , 2022. "Inter-sectoral prioritization of climate technologies: insights from a Technology Needs Assessment for mitigation in Brazil," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 27(7), pages 1-39, October.
    5. Géremi Gilson Dranka & Paula Ferreira, 2020. "Electric Vehicles and Biofuels Synergies in the Brazilian Energy System," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-22, August.
    6. Debora Sotto & Arlindo Philippi & Tan Yigitcanlar & Md Kamruzzaman, 2019. "Aligning Urban Policy with Climate Action in the Global South: Are Brazilian Cities Considering Climate Emergency in Local Planning Practice?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-31, September.
    7. Reginaldo Carvalho Santos & Carlos Antonio Silva Junior & Leandro Denis Battirola & Mendelson Lima, 2022. "Importance of legislation for maintaining forests on private properties in the Brazilian Cerrado," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 3356-3370, March.
    8. Franco-Solís, Alberto & Montanía, Claudia V., 2021. "Dynamics of deforestation worldwide: A structural decomposition analysis of agricultural land use in South America," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    9. Sugandha Srivastav & Ryan Rafaty, 2023. "Political Strategies to Overcome Climate Policy Obstructionism," Papers 2304.14960, arXiv.org.
    10. Bastiaan Reydon & Gabriel Pansani Siqueira & Delaide Silva Passos & Stephan Honer, 2022. "Unclear Land Rights and Deforestation: Pieces of Evidence from Brazilian Reality," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-17, December.
    11. Srivastav, Sugandha & Rafaty, Ryan, 2021. "Five Worlds of Political Strategy in the Climate Movement," INET Oxford Working Papers 2021-07, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    12. Ruth Delzeit & Roberto Beach & Ruben Bibas & Wolfgang Britz & Jean Chateau & Florian Freund & Julien Lefevre & Franziska Schuenemann & Timothy Sulser & Hugo Valin & Bas van Ruijven & Matthias Weitzel , 2020. "Linking global CGE models with sectoral models to generate baseline scenarios: Approaches, opportunities and pitfalls," Post-Print hal-03128285, HAL.
    13. Daniella Tiemi Sasaki Okida & Osmar Abílio de Carvalho Júnior & Osmar Luiz Ferreira de Carvalho & Roberto Arnaldo Trancoso Gomes & Renato Fontes Guimarães, 2021. "Relationship between Land Property Security and Brazilian Amazon Deforestation in the Mato Grosso State during the Period 2013–2018," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, February.
    14. Barbosa, Victor Alves & Nabout, João Carlos & Cunha, Hélida Ferreira da, 2023. "Spatial and temporal deforestation in the Brazilian Savanna: The discrepancy between observed and licensed deforestation in the state of Goiás," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    15. Alexandre C. Köberle & Pedro R. R. Rochedo & André F. P. Lucena & Alexandre Szklo & Roberto Schaeffer, 2020. "Brazil’s emission trajectories in a well-below 2 °C world: the role of disruptive technologies versus land-based mitigation in an already low-emission energy system," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 162(4), pages 1823-1842, October.
    16. Carlos Roberto de Sousa Costa & Paula Ferreira, 2023. "A Review on the Internalization of Externalities in Electricity Generation Expansion Planning," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-19, February.
    17. Weng, Yuwei & Cai, Wenjia & Wang, Can, 2021. "Evaluating the use of BECCS and afforestation under China’s carbon-neutral target for 2060," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 299(C).
    18. Garaffa, Rafael & Cunha, Bruno S.L. & Cruz, Talita & Bezerra, Paula & Lucena, André F.P. & Gurgel, Angelo C., 2021. "Distributional effects of carbon pricing in Brazil under the Paris Agreement," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    19. Lyrio de Oliveira, Lucas & García Kerdan, Iván & de Oliveira Ribeiro, Celma & Oller do Nascimento, Claudio Augusto & Rego, Erik Eduardo & Giarola, Sara & Hawkes, Adam, 2020. "Modelling the technical potential of bioelectricity production under land use constraints: A multi-region Brazil case study," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    20. Derek Sheehan & Katrina Mullan & Thales A. P. West & Erin O. Semmens, 2024. "Protecting Life and Lung: Protected Areas Affect Fine Particulate Matter and Respiratory Hospitalizations in the Brazilian Amazon Biome," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 87(1), pages 45-87, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:87:y:2019:i:c:s0264837719304077. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joice Jiang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/land-use-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.