The Forest Code Observatory has officially launched a new update of the Forest Code Thermometer data, an initiative built by civil society organizations to monitor how the Forest Code is being implemented in Brazilian states and municipalities. The data, referring to the years 2024 to 2025, helps to deepen the diagnosis of where the country has advanced and where the main obstacles to the application of the Native Vegetation Protection Law (Law No. 12,651/2012) remain.
Some of this information was initially presented in November in Belém (PA) during COP30, in the midst of global debates on climate, biodiversity and land use. With the official launch, the data is now fully available to the public, expanding society’s access to essential information for monitoring environmental policies and reinforcing the commitment of the Observatory and its members to transparency and social control.
The latest data from the Forest Code Thermometer shows that Brazil has registered 436.9 million hectares in the CAR (Rural Environmental Registry), compared to 428.9 million in the previous update. Even so, approximately 24.6 million hectares remain outside the system, equivalent to 5.32% of the area that should be registered. Added to this is the fact that the analysis of registrations by state environmental agencies is still slow, which increases the risk of inconsistencies, overlaps and land conflicts.
This fragility also appears in the quality of the registrations. In 2024 and 2025, overlaps between rural properties and conservation units grew by 9%, a higher percentage than the 5% increase in total CAR registrations in the same period. The data indicates that the volume of registrations is advancing faster than the ability to validate the information, increasing exposure to socio-environmental risks, especially in areas of agricultural expansion.
Marcelo Elvira, executive secretary of the Observatory, highlights the progress shown by the data, but stresses that it is still necessary to connect environmental regularization, legal certainty and climate goals from the effective implementation of the Code. “The data presented by the Thermometer reaffirms that the Forest Code already exists as a policy, but not yet as a consolidated practice in the biomes. There is information, there are instruments, but there is a need to transform this accumulation into concrete decisions that guide land use and the protection of native vegetation.”
Among the new features of this update of the Thermometer is the identification of the so-called land voids, areas without information on ownership, which total around 67 million hectares. The platform now allows, for example, the visualization of traditional territories that have already been officially recognized, but which have not yet been registered in the CAR, a task that falls to the public authorities. Currently, these areas represent 14.55% of all traditional territories recognized in the country.
It’s important to note, however, that this figure probably doesn’t reflect the scale of the problem. The lack of consensus on the number of territories of traditional peoples and communities, including those not yet titled or formally recognized, makes it difficult to accurately measure the areas that remain outside the CAR. Part of these territories may even be included in the land vacancies identified in this update.
The data also shows that environmental liabilities remain high. There has been no reduction in illegal deforestation in APPs (Permanent Preservation Areas) and legal reserves, which should be restored in order to bring rural properties into line with the environment. The national legal reserve liability reached 17.3 million hectares, while the deficit in APPs rose to 3.14 million hectares, indicating that the recovery of these areas remains far from necessary.
Jarlene Gomes, a researcher at IPAM (Amazon Environmental Research Institute), which is part of the initiative, comments: “The data reinforces that the Forest Code goes beyond a command and control standard and is strategic for Brazil’s food security. The advance in CAR registrations is positive, but the lack of effective analysis and the permanence of 17.3 million hectares of legal reserve liabilities creates legal uncertainty that harms the producer himself. The implementation of the law, especially the recovery of APPs and the regularization of legal reserves, guarantees the water and climate resilience needed to maintain productivity in the countryside. We need to move forward with implementation and turn the CAR into territorial action so that sustainability stops being a paper goal and becomes the basis of our economy.”
At the same time, the area of remaining and surplus native vegetation is growing. The remaining Legal Reserve reached 98.6 million hectares, and the surplus of native vegetation reached 70 million hectares, an increase of around 2 million compared to the previous update. These figures reveal an important potential for instruments provided for in the Forest Code, such as environmental compensation and Payment for Environmental Services, which still lack regulation and effective implementation.
The implementation of Environmental Regularization Programs remains uneven between the states. Only 11 states reported an increase in environmental regularization commitments, while others have not released any data or have not signed any commitments at all. This heterogeneity makes it difficult to monitor environmental regularization and limits rural producers’ access to the benefits provided by law.
Overall, the data from the Forest Code Thermometer indicates that although the CAR continues to make progress as a declaratory instrument, effective environmental regularization, especially the restoration of degraded areas, remains below what is necessary. This scenario jeopardizes the achievement of the Planaveg (National Native Vegetation Recovery Plan) targets and reinforces the urgency of strengthening the technical, institutional and political capacity of the states so that the Forest Code is, in fact, implemented in the territories.
Forest Code Thermometer
The Forest Code Thermometer is an initiative of the Forest Code Observatory network and gathers up-to-date information on the implementation of the Native Vegetation Protection Law in Brazil. The tool provides data in easy-to-read maps and graphs, broken down by states, municipalities, biomes and the country as a whole.
The information is generated and analysed by the Thermometer’s technical committee, made up of seven civil society organizations: IPAM (Amazon Environmental Research Institute), the Territorial Intelligence Centre of UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais), ICV (Life Centre Institute), Imaflora, the Socio-Environmental Institute, BVRio and Friends of the Earth – Brazilian Amazon. The platform was developed by IPAM.
Forest Code Observatory
The Forest Code Observatory is a network of 48 civil society organizations created in 2013 with the aim of monitoring the successful implementation of the Native Vegetation Protection Law (Federal Law No. 12.651/2012). Its purpose is to strengthen the role of civil society in defending Brazil’s native vegetation and to work with the most diverse actors to protect native vegetation, sustainable production and the recovery of natural environments.
