Examining Land Management Policies in the Brazilian Amazon

Current land acquisition, ownership and use patterns in the Brazilian Amazon has generated less than optimal results that fail to achieve a balance between development and conservation. A better understanding of the dynamics of land grabbing and land speculation as well as of the impact of current policies and of the institutions mandated to implement them is needed would help to influence and design new policies to better mange the race for property rights in the Amazon. To date, the debate has focused primarily on land reform with little considertation of how land is assigned and the efficiency of different uses. PROFOR is supporting a study that aims to reduce land conflict and lead to more efficient and sustainable outcomes.

The study will address how land rights are signalled, adjudicated, documented and enforced in different settings in front of and along the agricultural frontier under very different institutional contexts. It will examine the complex interactions of different formal and informal stakeholders influencing these functions of land rights in a set of twelve case studies. Based on findings from the case studies, strategic interventions, in particular what can be done at the sub-national level, will be identified to establish credibility of property rights. Workshops and consultations will be held to discuss and build consensus about the study's recommendations. The study will focus on the Brazilian Amazon, with case studies in the states of Amazonas, Acre, Mato Grosso and Pará. It is expected that key findings will be of relevance for land management issues in neighboring Amazon Basin countries.