Partial veto on Amazon land law

The Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has approved a controversial new law that will enable farmers in the Amazon to acquire title over an area of public land larger than France.

But President Lula vetoed two of the most contentious clauses in the bill, which would have allowed absentee landlords and companies to benefit from the transfer.

The measure is designed to end the chaotic state of land ownership in the region, in which hundreds of thousands of farmers do not have legal title to their land, with many claims dating back decades.

Under the “regularization”, title will be granted to occupiers who can show they occupied the land peacefully before the end of 2004. Plots of up to 100 hectares will be handed over for free, those up to 400 hectares will be available at a nominal rate, while those between 400 and 1500 hectares will be transferred at market rates, but with a 20-year payment period.

The legislation, originally proposed by the government, was altered significantly in Brazil’s Congress by deputies linked to the country’s powerful rural lobby. Under pressure from several ministers, Lula agreed to strike out two of those changes: one would have enabled title to have been given to land-holders not resident in the region, and the other would have allowed corporate bodies to benefit from the measure.

However, Lula allowed another of the controversial changes to stand: beneficiaries of the land transfer will be allowed to sell on larger holdings within three years, instead of a ten-year minimum as proposed in the original measure. Environmental groups fear this could heat up land speculation in the region and threaten anti-deforestation measures.

Among the critics of the new land legislation are a group of federal prosecutors in the region, who claim it is unconstitutional. They cite the fact that it could allow the transfer of public land to people who acquired it fraudulently, and that it does not explicitly protect the rights of traditional and indigenous communities.

The legislation gets its approval as the latest satellite data from the Brazilian National Space Research Agency suggests there has been a sharp drop in Amazon deforestation during recent months, although heavy cloud cover has meant that the survey was very incomplete.

Copyright Tim Hirsch 2009. All Rights Reserved.