On Wednesday (15), the House Floor approved the Provisional Measure 454/09, which enables the title transference of land belonging to the Union to the state of Roraima, and broadens the possible uses of that real estate, by means of amendments to Law 10.304/01. The matter still needs to be voted by the Senate.

The approved text belongs to the Conversion Bill proposed by Deputy Urzeni Rocha (PSDB-RR), who made only one amendment to it. He included diversified agrarian activities among the preferential uses which can be attributed to that real estate. The other activities, which had already been provided for at the MP, are: environmental conservation and sustainable development; settlements, colonization and agrarian regulation. Before that MP, real estate should be exclusively used for settlements and colonization.

Law 10.304/01 had already excluded from the transference indigenous land; devolution land, indispensable to the borders’ defense; lakes and rivers, hydraulic-power potentials; mineral resources; natural underground caves; and archaeological and pre-historic sites.

Natural resources
That MP also establishes that the property of the Union cannot be transferred on the following goods: natural resources of the continental platform and of the exclusive economic zone; territorial sea; navy´s rights to coastal land (riparian rights) and their accrued land; land destined to settlement projects; areas reserved to conservation units; and areas of common public usage, or special usage, such as locations where airports are installed; areas used by the Ministry of Defense; and those granted by the Union under certain conditions, such as those which had been offered for the establishment of companies.

According to the government, the amendments were negotiated by the state of Roraima and the Ministry of Agrarian Development, and the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra), since the former law was considered insufficient to effect that transference by the Supreme Court (STF).

STF judged that it was necessary to regulate that law and previously identify those areas to be kept by the Union.
Urzeni Rocha reminded that the former territory of Roraima was transformed in a state in 1988, but that it had been waiting until that moment for the effective transference of its assets. “The state's presence was virtual, since it existed only in theory, but did not have any assets. From now on, local government will be able to implement projects so as to have Roraima reach economic and social development, according to the same standards of other states”, he stressed.

Report - Eduardo Piovesan e Mônica Montenegro
Editing - João Pitella Junior
Translation – Positive Idiomas Ltda