Who owns Brazilian lands?

Highlights

• The first time all official Brazilian land tenure data have been integrated into a single map.

• For the whole country, 36% of lands are public, 44% are private, and 17% are unregistered or with unknown tenure. From the public, 6% are undesignated.

• Large properties is the single category which occupies the largest area of Brazil.

• Overlaps among land tenure categories sum 50% of the registered territory.

• Our findings expose both uncertainties and fragilities in Brazilian land tenure.

Abstract

Land tenure in many parts of Brazil remains uncertain and controversial. These problems have recently been exacerbated by changes in the legal framework regulating protected areas and the land market. A particular challenge facing attempts to improve land tenure security and governance in Brazil is the lack of a single, integrated assessment of all types of lands. Here we address this problem and present a first, integrated map of Brazilian land tenure encompassing all official data sources pertaining to both public and private lands. Of the total (8.5 million km²) 36.1% of all lands are public (with 6.4% officially undesignated), 44.2% are private, and 16.6% are unregistered or with unknown tenure. Strikingly, overlaps among land tenure categories sum to 50% of the registered territory of Brazil. A clearer understanding of uncertainties in land tenure, and the spatial distribution of those uncertainties can help guide research and public policies focused on minimizing land conflicts and strengthening governance and territorial planning to improve economic, environmental and social outcomes from land use in Brazil.