The Amazon Forest Preservation by Clarifying Property Rights and Potential Conflicts: How Experiments Using Fit-for-Purpose Can Help

Bastiaan Reydon, Mathilde Molendijk, Nicolas Porras and Gabriel Siqueira
Additional contact information
Bastiaan Reydon: Kadaster International Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping Agency (Kadaster), P.O. Box 9046, 7300 GH Apeldoorn, The Netherlands
Mathilde Molendijk: Kadaster International Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping Agency (Kadaster), P.O. Box 9046, 7300 GH Apeldoorn, The Netherlands
Nicolas Porras: Kadaster International Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping Agency (Kadaster), P.O. Box 9046, 7300 GH Apeldoorn, The Netherlands
Gabriel Siqueira: Institute of Economics, State University of Campinas, Campinas 13083-857, Brazil

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 2, 1-16

Abstract: The burning and the deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon forest, which has been recently highlighted by the international press and occurs mostly on public or undesignated land, calls for an in-depth examination. This has traditionally been the main way to grab land, speculate, and simultaneously prove ownership by its occupation. The absence of mapping, registration, and an effective regulation of land property in Brazil, particularly in the Amazon, plays an important role in its deforestation. Recent estimations, besides others, show that the amount of land in this condition is around 200 million ha, near enough ¼ of the national surface. This article, besides examining the Brazilian deforestation characteristics, provides evidence that clear landholders’ rights diminishes deforestation, and that proposals based on concrete cases of participatory clarification of land rights in forest regions using fit for purpose (FfP) methodology promote forest preservation. The article finishes with an example of a land rights clarifying case from small, medium, large, and traditional population landholders. The case is important to illustrate that it is possible to clarify land rights in a FfP way and how that increases the security of landholders, diminishing the pressure on the land and thus reducing the potential deforestation.

Keywords: Amazon; deforestation; Fit-For-Purpose land administration; participatory mapping (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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