The Chamber is reviewing a Provisional Measure (MP) 454/09, which enables the transference of land owned by the Union to Roraima, and softens the restrictions to which the state is enforced regarding the use of those areas.

The Law 10.304/01 had already authorized the transfer of properties, but the transaction could not be concluded because the detailing of areas which would stay with the Union was lacking. The minister of Agrarian Development, Guilherme Cassel, affirms that, with the publishing of that MP, Roraima will have a “greater ordainment and control of its territory occupation, and a greater capacity to promote its own progress”.

The Deputy Marcio Junqueira (DEM-RR) affirms that the MP is a “beginning of advancement”, but does not assist completely the state. He assesses that at least three points need to be reviewed: the gap for the creation of conservation unities in cultured lands; the opening for the creation of new environmental reserves in the state; and the excess of environmental focus in the conditions established for the transference of the areas.

For Junqueira, the text of the MP reveals Amazonia is unknown to the federal government. The congressman considers that legislation should list the various biomes that compose the areas of the state, being less strict for the concession of environmental licenses where there is not the covering of rainforest.

"I am totally against cutting even an only tree, but I am absolutely against the population growing poorer because of the lack of freedom to work their land and to produce their food”, he affirmed.

Late compensation
The MP 454, according to the standpoint of the Deputy Maria Helena (PSB-RR), comes to “compensate the losses the state has had with the excess of demarcation of indigenous lands”.

Maria Helena considers, though, that the MP is not sufficient to compensate the losses suffered by the former territory. According to her, that measure should have been adopted at the creation of the state, in 1990.

The deputy says that the lack of definition of land titles prevented the legalization of real estate and, consequently, the approval of loans for local producers.

For Marcio Junqueira, though, even if the land title problems are solved, the hindrances to economic development will persist, because of the orthodoxy of environmental legislation.

Indigenous land
The land settlement in Roraima has been a reason for polemics. The state filed lawsuits at the Supreme Court (STF) against the demarcation of the Raposa Serra do Sol reserve in its territory, among others, with the argument that nearly half of its territory is owned by the indigenous people.

The STF is judging the constitutionality of the Raposa Serra do Sol reserve, demarked in 1,743,089 continuous hectares in the territory of Roraima. The MP keeps the prohibition that the Union transfers indigenous areas to the state of Roraima.

The provisional measure, though, provides that the use of transferred land of the Union to Roraima be preferably to shelter settlements and environmental conservation projects, projects on sustainable development, and colonization and agrarian regularization. In the original wording of Law 10.304/01, that use was mandatory.

Report - Edvaldo Fernandes
Editing - Pierre Triboli
Translation – Positive Idiomas Ltda