Brazil:
New legislation allows agribusiness to advance in the Amazon
On
9 July 2008 the Brazilian Senate adopted a provision by the Executive
known as a “provisional measure,” subject to the subsequent
approval of the Legislative. The provision has been harshly questioned
by environmentalists and various political and social sectors in
Brazil, including the former Minister of the Environment, Senator
Marina Silva.
During
the 1970s and 1980s, the dictatorial governments of the time granted
incentives for the occupation of the Amazon, benefiting large landowners
who gained strength in the region and illegally took over public
land. This situation led to disputes with the traditional
peoples of the area.
Last
June, in a third attempt, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
promulgated the “provisional measure” that became a
law (Conversion 09 (PLV) Bill), that had been adopted by the Chamber
of Deputies and subsequently by the Senate. With this law the situation
of the occupiers of over 67 million hectares of state land in the
Legal Amazon – that covers a total of 508.8 million hectares
in the states of Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Mato Grosso, Pará,
Rondônia, Roraima and Tocantins and part of Maranhão-
is now regularized.
Up
until now, the concession of public lands – by the National
Institute for Settlement and Agrarian Reform – to private
individuals for rural use and without requirements such as calls
for bids, was limited to 500 hectare units. The legal measure increases
this limit to 1,500 hectares. This implies that regularization will
leave 72% of the land under the control of 7% of the occupants,
who may farm it or put cattle on it and after three years, may put
it up for sale.
The
complaints allege that the measure does not distinguish between
peasant occupiers: usually families that have established themselves
to work the land (“posseiros”) and speculators –
both those trying to obtain the greatest number of plots to subsequently
sell them at a greater value and those who have taken over the land
by means of violence, usually large landowners (“grileiros”)
who have created a real mafia and who concoct documents and deeds
in areas that are marked by disputes and deforestation.
According
to Marina Silva, the measure “will mean a process of land
privatization, of legalization of areas that have been illegally
appropriated [Grilagem: Illegal drawing up of deeds and appropriation
of land] with serious damage to the Plan of Action against Deforestation
in the Amazon.”
Ariovaldo
Umbelino, Professor of Agrarian Geography at the University of Sao
Paulo explains: “Another part of this ingenious operation
to legalize the appropriation of land of the National Institute
for Settlement and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) in the Legal Amazon,
has been to take advantage of the increase in deforestation in that
region to carry out a new real estate registry. This will enable
the ‘grileiros’ who had not yet registered the public
land that they had appropriated up to December 2004, to do so now
and thus qualify to ‘buy’ land that they had taken over
without the need to bid. Furthermore, the notice in the INCRA
website on the new registry, absurdly recognizes already the ‘grileiros’
as ‘posseiros: ‘The owners or ‘posseiros’
of areas greater than four fiscal modules [...] shall have to submit
to INCRA, between 3 March and 2 April, documents proving their ownership
or peaceful possession of the land, ground plans and descriptive
specifications with the correct geographical location of the rural
real estate’ (http://www.incra.gov.br). It should be noted
that the plots of peasant farmer families in the Amazon cover less
than 100 hectares each and that the changes foreseen in the new
legislation are intended to regularize the appropriation of public
lands that corrupt INCRA officials illegally ‘sold’
to agro-bandits.” (1)
According
to Greenpeace’s Nilo D’Ávila, “The trend
is for the larger and better property to remain in the hands of
real estate speculators and of people who do not live on that land.
The door for real estate speculation in the Amazon is totally open.
And the result of the sum of these actions that the government is
promoting will be equivalent to deforestation.”(2)
It
is worth noting that the pressure from social and environmental
organizations managed to make some improvements to the original
measure. Presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva introduced
a veto on article 7 of the provision that allowed land to be transferred
to legal entities or individuals that did not inhabit the region
and who managed their lands using a “front.” However
criticism pointed out that this may not be of significance considering
that the speculators do not usually act as legal entities.
The
agrarian reform that through mobilization by the people had laboriously
been introduced into the constitution, is being “blocked,”
according to the words of the coordinator of the Landless Workers
Movement (MST - Movimiento de Trabajadores Sin Tierra), Joao Stedile.
"Land that should be used for the agrarian reform is being
allocated to foreign companies to produce eucalyptus, soybean, cattle
and agrofuel,” (3) he denounced, mentioning among others the
major companies engaged in eucalyptus plantation and pulp production,
such as Aracruz, Veracel y Suzano.
According
to MST data, “In 1992, there were a little over 19 thousand
large landowners holding over 2 thousand hectares which, as a whole,
amounted to 121 million hectares. In 2003, the number of these properties
had risen to 32 thousand (almost double) and the total area amounted
to 132 million hectares. In 11 years, 12 million hectares have been
taken over by the large landowners.” (4)
These
are times when a dangerous world process of land appropriation by
agribusiness is taking place, as an answer to the financial and
food crisis. Governments and companies have launched themselves
into the search for farm lands in Asia and Africa, but they are
also reaching Latin America. China and Saudi Arabia are interested
in acquiring farm land in Brazil. According to INCRA there are four
million hectares in Brazil registered in the name of foreigners
and over half of this area is located in the Amazon.
At
the present time, the General Attorney of the Republic has filed
an appeal of unconstitutionality before the Brazilian Supreme Federal
Court against the new law for the regularization of invaded lands
in the Amazon region, considering that it violates article 188 of
the Constitution which provides that “the purpose of public
and fiscal land shall be compatible with the agricultural policy
and the national agrarian reform plan.” Furthermore, it affirms
in its article 191 that “those who, not owning rural or urban
real estate, possess as their own uninterruptedly for five years
and without opposition an area of land in a rural zone, of no more
than fifty hectares, making it productive through their work or
that of their families, and having on it their dwelling, shall acquire
ownership.”
The
last word has not been said. Resistance continues.
(1)
“A farra da legalização da grilagem”,
03/04/2008, Ariovaldo Umbelino, http://www.mst.org.br/mst/pagina.php?cd=5162
(2) “MP da Grilagem beneficia poucos posseiros com muita terra
na Amazônia”, 06/07/2009, Brasil de fato, http://www.brasildefato.com.br/v01/agencia/
nacional/mp-da-grilagem-beneficia-poucos-posseiro
s-com-muita-terra-na-amazonia/
(3) “MST denounces that the Agrarian Reform is “blocked”
in Brazil,” AMARC-ALC, http://www.agenciapulsar.org/nota.php?id=13954
(4) “MST assesses the Agrarian Reform in the country and criticises
agribusiness,” 14/04/09, Adital, http://www.adital.com.br/site/noticia.asp?lang=ES&cod=38204
