The rapporteur postponed the presentation of his review on the MP which regulates land in Amazonia to negotiate details with representative bodies of the sector

The rapporteur on the Provisional Measure 458/09, Deputy Asdrúbal Bentes (PMDB-PA), announced that he will place in his report a device obliging the states of Legal Amazonia to conclude their environmental-economic zonings (ZEEs) in a one-year term, under the penalty of not being able to close agreements with the Union. “The elaboration of the ZEEs is very necessary, so that the states help containing the violence caused by agrarian conflicts”, he declared in a public hearing on the subject, held on Wednesday (11), at the Committee on Amazonia, National Integration and Rural Development.

The MP 458/09, among other themes, authorizes the transference - without bidding processes - of land owned by the Union, with up to 1,500 hectares, in the Legal Amazonia, to whoever has its possession before December 2004. Bentes announced that he intends to change that term, so that there is no “black hole” reaching people who have arrived at that region after 2004. “I am studying the case and will submit a solution which will fulfill the needs of the region, in order not to let those who settled in after 2004 without legal protection”.

Negotiation
Bentes said that he intends to postpone the presentation of his preliminary report, which is previewed for Friday (13), to negotiate the subject with bodies representing the theme. “The matter is polemic, involves 61% of domestic territory, and received 249 amendments; we cannot be giddy and issue an opinion, make a hasty report, without discussing it further with society”, he justified.

Prices
During the hearing, Deputy Neudo Campos (PP-RR) asked Bentes that the prices charged on regulation operations provided for at the MP be coherent with the income of the population of the region. “The people will not be able to afford it [a high value]. It is necessary to make a clear distinction between those who have settled in the land for a long time and those who arrive later, to buy the already regulated land”, he said.

The rapporteur, though, considered the preoccupation of the Roraima’s deputy as “partially pertinent”, since, according to Bentes, the term for the acquisition of land will be long, which would make the payment of higher amounts easier. “I think that a lot measuring 1,500 hectares is a nice size, and that the productivity of that area will allow its owner to afford the payment”, he commented.

Specific agrarian body
Bentes also defended the establishment of a specific public body to address the agrarian issue in Amazonia, with different criteria from the ones applied in other regions of this country. “We need an agile and frugal body, and which is specific to Amazonia. I would not say a ministry, which would be the ideal, but a specific structure for the agrarian part” he stressed.

Work group
The secretary of the Union’s Assets, Alexandra Reschke, participated in the hearing and said that the Civilian Household will install a work group to structure a plan to apply MP 458/09. The workgroup will have representatives of the Union and of states’ bodies of the Amazonian region, related to agrarian regulation.

According to the secretary, more agility is necessary for the identification, demarcation and regulation of the areas. She also stressed the importance of a “culture change” of the peoples of the region, which would be “strongly marked by private relations and by the accumulation of areas, especially the government’s ones, squattered during decades”.

Also at the hearing, the President of the National Association of Notaries, Rogerio Bacelar, praised the MP, especially because it prevents someone who has already received any real estate in Amazonia to be impeached to sell it to receive another in a different location.

Report- Rodrigo Bittar
Editing - Newton Araújo/Rejane Xavier
Translation - Positive Idiomas Ltda