Measure on the regulation of land in the Amazon will have its review by March 10th
Deputy Asdrubal Bentes (PMDB-PA), also a lawyer specialized in agrarian issues, should present, by March 10th, his review on the Provisional Measure 458/09. That MP authorizes the transference, without bidding processes, of land belonging to the Union and measuring up to 1,500 hectares, in the Amazon, to people holding their possession since before December 2004.
According to the congressman and rapporteur’s evaluation, that MP will be a tool for the development of the region, since it will grant legal guarantees to investments. Bentes believes that the largest polemics should happen around the legal reserve to be established, and the land transference from the states to the government.
Chamber Angency – How do you see the MP 458/08?
Asdrubal Bentes – That MP is the largest development project for the Amazonian region that the government has ever offered. The largest hindrance for our development is the agrarian chaos. Nobody invests in land without juridical safety. The Amazon has been losing investments therefore. But that is a polemic MP, which we, from Congress will have to improve.
Chamber Agency – What are the points you judge the most polemic?
Bentes – The environmental problems. One of the points is the inclusion of lowlands as areas belonging to the Union. In the Amazon there has been already certain popular anger since the Decree-Law 1164/71, which subtracted 100 km at the margins of constructed roads, of those being constructed or of the planned ones. Since the first republican constitutions, the land at the margins of roads was managed by the states. That will raise discussions, since the states will want to preserve them as their assets. We will discuss, listen to the governors, if possible, to the presidents of the land institutes. It is a shame that time is so short for a deeper discussion.
Chamber Agency – They estimate that around 296,000 irregular possessions of up to 1,500 hectares can be legalized. Is this significant?
Bentes – Yes, much. The Amazon has currently little land for agriculture, animal industry and productive activities in general, since a large part of its territory is formed by indigenous and environmental reserves, and there is also the legal reserve. The available area is small, if compared to the size of the region. What happens is that, since the military regime, which encouraged the migration to the region, with the motto “putting the landless man in the land without men, to integrate it in order not to surrender it”, and many migrated to the region. Later the State became absent and generated the current chaos. That MP tries to regulate this situation.
Chamber Agency – How do you intend to approach the subject of the legal reserve which, more recently, went from 50% of the area to 80% of it?
Bentes – This is another point which will raise passionate discussions. We need to see the reality, the fact, since it is from it that that right is born. We have two situations: the possessions granted before the legal reserve of 80%, and the ones after it. The ones ruled by the former law, which provided for a legal reserve of 50%, should be considered as with that percentage. The later ones, 80%. We will listen to them, discuss, and, from those discussions, propose our bill.
Chamber Agency – The original bill provides that possessions should have been granted before December 2004. Many of the amendments proposed to the MP preview different dates, before or after that one. How do you see this issue?
Bentes – I have no priori judgment. I believe that the term determined by the government is reasonable. If the government requires 5 years, we will eliminate the comprehension of the former possessions, and the goal is to regularize, to grant judicial safety, so that The Amazon can develop.
Chamber Agency – The establishment of a price for the land is not a consensus either…
Bentes – The original proposal establishes that an area up to 100 hectares be donated, from 101 to 400, sold at an inexpensive price. From 401 to 15 fiscal modules, provided that it does not surpass 1,500 hectares, at the market price without bidding process, to swift that regulation.
Chamber Agency – Some congresspeople disagree with the donation.
Bentes – The government does not want to use land as a means of collection. It is also envisaging its social aspect. The smaller producers, with up to 100 hectares, are workers without assets, and have trouble surviving. The government is also thinking at the social function of land. Land is not only a market good, it has also to fulfill its social function.
Chamber Agency – Do you believe that regulation can pacify the Amazonian region, an area with many conflicts for land?
Bentes – Agrarian conflicts will always exist, especially in more fertile regions. There is no fight for the land where it is not productive. Wherever it represents a good that can potentially improve life conditions, it becomes a disputed good. The MP will grant legal safety to those occupying it. Thus, the state will also be disencumbered. The holder of the possession, with its legal title, has the duty to protect it. That responsibility goes from the Union to each citizen settled at the land. He/she should defend it with all legal, administrative or even judicial measures, if it is the case.
Report - Vânia Alves/RT
Translation – Positive Idiomas Ltda