Anna Júlia Lopes*
A new quarterly bulletin from the Public Forests Observatory, to be released next Thursday (June 5), World Environment Day, shows that 32.7 million hectares of unallocated public forests (FPNDs) are at risk of land grabbing due to overlapping records in the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR). In an interview with Um Grau e Meio, Rebecca Lima, a researcher at IPAM (Amazon Environmental Research Institute), explains the potential impacts of land grabbing in the region and how it could lead to increased deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions.
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Lima, who holds a PhD in geography from Kansas State University in the United States and coordinates an IPAM initiative aimed at promoting the sustainable allocation and use of FPNDs for Amazon conservation, emphasizes how the official allocation of public forests could be key to stopping land grabbers in the region.
The new bulletin from the Public Forests Observatory shows that 10.2 million hectares are at high risk of land grabbing due to registration in the Sicar system. What does this mean in practice?
These are large-scale CARs overlapping public lands, which often indicates links to organized groups with financing and substantial resources.
To draw a comparison: deforesting a large area is very expensive, which means it’s probably tied to major speculators—people who have their eyes on a specific area and who may eventually take possession, whether through legal loopholes or other means.
Is it possible to say there is a connection between land grabbing and the market?
Yes. There’s strong evidence that once land is grabbed and cleared, it’s used for cattle ranching, and eventually, for soybean farming. This dynamic happened in the Deforestation Arc, in Matopiba, and has repeated over time.
Deforestation increased in April 2025 before the dry season. Is there a pattern of land grabbing and deforestation in FPNDs?
When an area is deforested, it loses soil moisture and the local temperature rises, making the area more vulnerable to fire. Now, a CAR overlap doesn’t always mean immediate deforestation—it could happen later.
Are there ways to stop the misuse of the CAR system?
Yes, if the CAR validation process is monitored more efficiently. It’s currently up to local and state agencies, and it takes a long time to validate. By the time it’s validated, the land may already be grabbed or deforested.
Besides improving the CAR validation process, are there other measures the federal and state governments can take to reduce land grabbing?
Allocation must happen. The allocation process is long and time-consuming, so we need to speed it up so the area can be regularized and receive a title—whether as Indigenous land, Quilombola territory, a conservation unit, or a sustainable use area, for example. It’s a crucial step.
Based on the bulletin data, what would be the short-term impact if the 10.2 million high-risk hectares were protected?
There would be a positive social and socioeconomic impact on sociobiodiversity, especially with a focus on sustainable use and traditional communities.
Making progress on the allocation of FPNDs before COP30 could be a strategic opportunity for Brazil. How important is this issue on the international stage?
It affects both Brazil’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the Paris Agreement. The impact is not only local and regional but also global in terms of carbon dioxide emissions.
Last week, the Senate approved a bill that weakens environmental licensing rules. In your view, could this rollback affect unallocated public forests?
Yes. With nearby infrastructure, these areas could become even more vulnerable to land grabbing and invasion.
To access the full bulletin, follow the @amazoniadepe channels or register on the Public Forests Observatory platform.