Participation marks beginning of Fundo Vale’s support for Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) to accelerate land-use planning processes in favor of sustainable development in the biome
Fundo Vale was invited to take part in a meeting of the Land Governance Working Group on April 11, during the 27th Amazon Governors’ Forum, held in Rio Branco, Acre. Governmental and non-governmental leaders discussed challenges and solutions to speed up land-use planning and reform processes in the Amazon region.
The working group was made up of land use governance secretaries and land agency representatives from the states of Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima and Tocantins. The meeting was also attended by guests representing the Ministry for Agrarian Development and Family Farming, the Inter-American Development Bank, the German International Development Agency (GIZ) and the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM). The latter organization is supported by Fundo Vale through a land tenure reform management program in Pará.
“The land tenure reform agenda is extremely important for the Amazon and Fundo Vale, as this issue often becomes an obstacle to bioeconomy initiatives, sustainable production and the strengthening of protected areas. When small rural producers, residents of quilombos (settlements composed of descendants of runaway slaves), riverside communities and settlers don’t have land titles, they have limited access to tax benefits, lines of credit and public policies,” explained Márcia Soares, Fundo Vale’s Amazon and partnerships manager.
She also highlighted the lack of land tenure reform as an obstacle to progress in the carbon market, since companies can only generate credits on land that has a legal owner. “This has also been an obstacle to the advancement of the forest restoration agenda, making it harder for us to achieve Vale’s 2030 Forest Goal, which entails restoring 100,000 hectares, as well as protecting another 400,000 hectares. So, supporting this process is important for the entire ecosystem that is working to protect and regenerate the Amazon,” she concluded.
Among other subjects, the meeting discussed the Federative Land Regulation System (SICARF), a technology tool used by some states for land registration and regularization. The aim is for all states in a consortium to implement their own system, and for these local systems to later evolve into a national system, integrated with the federal government’s database, in order to speed up land tenure reform.