Hvordan Brasiliens regering gør offentlig jord til privat og baner vejen for skovrydning

Forestil dig, at flere statslige lovgivere beslutter, at Yellowstone National Park er for stor. Forestil dig også, at de i samarbejde med føderale politikere ændrer loven for at reducere parken med en million acres, som de sælger på en privat auktion.

Uhyrlig? Ja. Uhørt? Nej. Det sker rutinemæssigt og med stigende hyppighed i det brasilianske Amazonas.

Den mest omtalte trussel mod Amazonas regnskov er skovrydning. Mindre velforstået er, at offentlige jorder bliver omdannet til private bedrifter i en jordfangst, vi har studeret i det sidste årti.

Meget af denne jord er ryddet til kvægfarme og sojabønnefarme, hvilket truer biodiversiteten og jordens klima. Tidligere forskning har kvantificeret, hvor meget offentlig jord der er blevet grebet, men kun for én type offentlig jord kaldet "uudpegede offentlige skove."

Vores forskning giver en komplet redegørelse på tværs af alle klasser af offentlig jord. Vi kiggede på Amazonias mest aktive skovrydningsgrænse, den sydlige delstat Amazonas, startende i 2012, da antallet af skovrydning begyndte at stige på grund af løsnet lovgivningsmæssigt tilsyn. Vores forskning viser, hvordan jordfangster er knyttet til accelererende skovrydning med velhavende interesser i spidsen, og hvordan Brasiliens nationalkongres ved at ændre love legitimerer disse jordfangster.

Sådan begyndte Amazonas landfangst

Brasiliens moderne jordfangst startede i 1970'erne, da militærregeringen begyndte at tilbyde gratis jord for at tilskynde mineindustrier og landmænd til at flytte ind, idet de argumenterede for, at national sikkerhed afhang af udviklingen af ​​regionen. Det tog landområder, der havde været under statslige jurisdiktioner siden kolonitiden, og tildelte dem til landbebyggelse, hvilket gav 150 til 250 hektar store bedrifter til fattige bønder.

Føderale og statslige regeringer udpegede i sidste ende over 65 % af Amazonia til flere offentlige interesser, herunder landdistrikter. For biodiversitet skabte de bevaringsenheder, nogle tillader traditionel ressourceanvendelse og subsistenslandbrug. Tilbageværende regeringsjorder omtales generelt som "ledige eller ikke-udpegede offentlige arealer."

Sporing af landgrebet

Undersøgelser har anslået, at i 2020 var 32 % af "uudpegede offentlige skove" blevet grebet til privat brug. Men dette er kun en del af historien, fordi land grabbing nu påvirker mange typer offentlig jord.

Det er vigtigt, at landgreb nu påvirker fredede områder og oprindelige territorier, hvor private bedrifter er forbudt.

Vi sammenlignede grænserne for selverklærede private bedrifter i regeringens Rural Environmental Registry-database, kendt som CAR, med grænserne for alle offentlige arealer i det sydlige Amazonas-stat. Regionen har 50.309 kvadratkilometer i bevaringsenheder. Af disse fandt vi ud af, at 10.425 kvadratkilometer, 21 %, er blevet "grebet" eller erklæret i CAR-registret som private mellem 2014 og 2020.

I USA ville det være som at få 21 % af nationalparkerne til at forsvinde til privat ejendom.

Vores måling er formentlig en undervurdering, da ikke alle grebne jorder er registreret. Nogle land grabbers bruger nu CAR til at etablere krav, der kan blive lovlige med ændringer i loven.

Land grabs put the rainforest at risk by increasing deforestation. In southern Amazonas, our research reveals that twice as much deforestation occurred on illegal as opposed to legal CAR holdings between 2008 and 2021, a relative magnitude that is growing.

Large deforestation patches point to wealth

So who are these land grabbers?

In Pará State, Amazonas State's neighbor, deforestation in the 1990s was dominated by poor family farms in rural settlements. On average, these households accumulated 120 acres of farmland after several decades by opening 4–6 acres of forest every few years in clearings visible on satellite images as deforestation patches.

Since then, patch sizes have grown dramatically in the region, with most deforestation occurring on illicit holdings whose patches are much larger than on legal holdings.

Large deforestation patches indicate the presence of wealthy grabbers, given the cost of clearing land.

Land grabbers benefit by selling the on-site timber and by subdividing what they've grabbed for sale in small parcels. Arrest records and research by groups such as Transparency International Brasil show that many of them are involved in criminal enterprises that use the land for money laundering, tax evasion and illegal mining and logging.

In the 10-year period before President Jair Bolsonaro took office, satellite data showed two deforestation patches exceeding 3,707 acres in Southern Amazonas. Since his election in 2019, we can identify nine massive clearings with an average size of 5,105 acres. The clearance and preparation cost for each Bolsonaro-era deforestation patch, legal or illicit, would be about US$353,000.

Legitimizing land grabbing

Brazil's National Congress has been making it easier to grab public land.

A 2017 change in the law expanded the legally allowed size of private holdings in undesignated public lands and in rural settlements. This has reclassified over 1,000 square miles of land that had been considered illegal in 2014 as legal in southern Amazonas. Of all illegal CAR claims in undesignated public lands and rural settlements in 2014, we found that 94% became legal in 2017.

Congress is now considering two additional pieces of legislation. One would legitimize land grabs up to 6,180 acres, about 9.5 square miles, in all undesignated public forests—an amount already allowed by law in other types of undesignated public lands. The second would legitimize large holdings on about 80,000 square miles of land once meant for the poor.

Our research also shows that the federal government increased the amount of public land up for grabs in southern Amazonas by shrinking rural settlements by 16%, just over 2,000 square miles, between 2015 and 2020. Large ranches are now absorbing that land. Similar downsizing of public land has affected Amazonia's national parks.

What can turn this around?

Because of policy interventions and the greening of agricultural supply chains, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell after 2005, reaching a low point in 2012, when it began trending up again because of weakening environmental governance and reduced surveillance.

Other countries have helped Brazil with billions of dollars to protect the Amazon for the good of the climate, but in the end, the land belongs to Brazil. Outsiders have limited power to influence its use.

At the U.N. climate summit in 2021, 141 countries—including Brazil—signed a pledge to end deforestation by 2030. This pledge holds potential because, unlike past ones, the private sector has committed $7.2 billion to reduce agriculture's impact on the forest. In our view, the global community can help by insisting that supply chains for Amazonian beef and soybean products originate on lands deforested long ago and whose legality is longstanding.