Land Policy and Administration as a Basis for the Sustainable Development of the Brazilian Amazon

There is enough land in the Amazon
region to satisfy Brazilian society's demands for
economic development, environmental management of a resource
base of global importance and the challenges of agrarian
reform. Yet Brazil has been unable to create a fully
coherent and manageable land policy and administration
system for the region which permits sustainable development
goals to be achieved while reconciling special interests and
uses. Instead, resource waste, private appropriation of the
public domain and social conflict characterize land
relations in the region. As the region becomes increasingly
accessible for a variety of economic activities, and more
central to Brazil's economy, the resolution of the land
questions looms large as a foundational element for
reconciling and ordering economic development, resource
management and social priorities. Conclusion: the technical
requirements to support land regularization are of a
manageable scale and would require a complete
geo-referencing of each parcel of land in the region,
matched one-to-one with the property's entry in the
land registry (cartorio).